The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 99, July 1995 - April, 1996 Page: 45
626 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Meaning of Participation
salary. Three years later the Sewing Circle took charge of the school-
house and contributed money toward repairs on the church.5 By De-
cember 1861, after the call of a new minister, the vestry chose to
appoint a committee of "three ladies . . . to solicit subscriptions to an
amount (say $2ooo) sufficient to pay the minister's salary" and other ex-
penses for the coming year. The three women appointed agreed to serve
and by April 1862 had raised $1782.76 It is conceivable that the vestry-
men were pressured by the upheaval of the Civil War to break from tra-
dition and appoint women to handle this task. A drain on time or
money might have possibly forced the vestry to seek new ways to raise
money. Yet in January 1862 the vestry raised nearly $200 for the pur-
chase of a new chimney and bell. Difficulty raising money was not the
only reason for the women's appointment.77
Not all influential people embraced the idea of appointing women.
The rector of Christ Church, writing to the vestry from the Civil War bat-
tlefield regarding financial difficulties, "protest[ed] against the infor-
mality of our female members being called upon to perform this
office."'" The vestry did not record any discussion of this protest, but the
next time the issue of raising subscriptions for the support of the parish
arose, they appointed three men to the committee. Immediately follow-
ing that appointment, the minutes also show the appointment of five
women "to raise a prayer book fund."79
Raising money by holding fairs and subscriptions, the First Baptist
Church women were responsible for helping raise money to build the
first church in 1845, a parsonage in 1871, and a second church building
in 1877. In the open First Baptist Church meetings, women had a right
to vote on how money was used, as finances were discussed by the entire
congregation until 1874. In addition, the women's groups that raised
the money could exert certain unofficial controls as well. One history in-
dicates that the money the women raised in 1845 for the first church
building was delivered "under duress."80 The women did hand the mon-
ey over, but not without first exerting some claim upon it. In a Peters-
burg, Virginia, church, Suzanne Lebsock found a similar instance of
women delaying the delivering of their society's funds until they saw
progress in the project for which it was intended.81 Like the Christ
75 Vestry Minutes, May 2, 1848, Feb. 27, 1849, pp. 60 (2nd quotation), 69 (1st quotation), in
Christ Church Records.
76 Ibid., 253 (quotation), 257.
77 Ibid., 256.
7 Ibid., 265.
7 Ibid., 275.
80 Bell, et al. (eds.), A Church in the City Reaching the World, 144.
81 Lebsock, The Free Women of Petersburg, 223.1995
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 99, July 1995 - April, 1996, periodical, 1996; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101217/m1/73/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.