Clara Babcock

Clara Celestia Hale Babcock (31 May 1850 – 12 December 1925) was one of the first women preachers to be ordained within the Restoration Movement, and was a leader within the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

Biography

Clara Celestia Hale was born on May 31, 1850, in Fitchville, Ohio. She married Israel Babcock in 1865.[1] Formerly members of the Methodist Church,[2] the Babcocks joined the Stone-Campbell Movement in 1880 at the Sterling Christian Church in Sterling, Illinois.[1]

Babcock was also active in local temperance movements and served as a leader in the WCTU, becoming president of the Whiteside County union in Whiteside, Illinois, in 1887.[1]

Following a speaking engagement that was likely on behalf of the WCTU at an Erie, Illinois, church in 1888,[2][3] the congregation urged Babcock to be their minister.

She was ordained by Andrew Scott of the Sterling Christian Church in 1889.[4][5] Babcock participated in twenty-eight annual revivals[5] and served as a pastor at churches throughout Illinois, Iowa, and North Dakota.[1]

Prior to her death in 1924, Babcock served as a pastor in Savanna, Illinois.[6]

References
  1. Pereira, Mary Ellen Lantzer. "Babcock, Clara Celestia Hale (1850-1924)". In Foster, Douglas A. The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004. p. 54. ISBN 9780802838988.
  2. Miller, Bonnie (2008). "Restoration Women Who Responded to the Spirit Before 1900". Leaven. 16: 5.
  3. Zuber, Glenn Michael. "Women Missionary and Temperance Organizers Become 'Disciples of Christ' Ministers, 1888-1908". In Casey, Michael W., Douglas A. Foster. The Stone-Campbell Movement: An International Religious Tradition. University of Tennessee Press, 2002. p. 300-301. ISBN 1572331798.
  4. Long, Loretta M.. "Christian Church/Disciples of Christ Tradition and Women". In Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether. Encyclopedia of Women and Religion and North America. Indiana University Press, 2006. pp. 296-307. ISBN 0253346851.
  5. Hull, Debra B. Christian Church Women: Shapers of a Movement. St Louis, Chalice Press, 1994. p. 29-30. ISBN 978-0827204638
  6. "The Palm Bearers (Obituaries)". Christian Evangelist. December 31, 1925. OCLC 9162697.
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