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Townsley SURMOUNTED Barriers to Become a Woman Preacher

[Frances Townsley, frontpiece from A Pilgrim Maid, Butler, Indiana:L. H. Higley, Publisher, 1908. public domain]


FRANCES TOWNSLEY was one of the first women ordained as a pastor by a mainline Baptist church in America. For years she had been licensed to preach and specialized in reviving dying churches. She preached surrender of one’s will as the essential step to acceptance of Christ as savior. People got saved and churches grew. 

In her autobiography, A Pilgrim Maid, Townsley eloquently described the power of kindnesses that made her what she became. For instance, as a girl her penmanship was terrible. William M. Scribner, coauthor of a handwriting manual, came to the school she attended to inspect the students’ work. 

My face doubtless expressed my consternation as the Professor approached our row of seats, for the pupils tittered audibly as they eyed me with more scorn than pity....He was wholly unprepared ... for the awful sight that greeted his eyes on my dreadful page! He lifted it, laid it back on my desk, while a renewed giggle went through our division. Would he strike me, or send me home, or tell the principal to mark me ten below zero for carelessness? No! He glanced an instant at my terror-smitten face and then said, “Never mind! Keep right on! Girls, don’t laugh! Someday this miss will be heard from when you will not!” I vowed inwardly that moment to learn to write fairly well, and to that one word of cheer, HOW MUCH I OWE!

Soon after this, her brother Willie died from pneumonia and neglect in the Union army (having never fired a shot in the Civil War). She became bitter at God and mocked when the Bible was read. Later she tried to live as a Christian but found she could not. Her sin nature was evident when she became enraged while milking an obstinate red cow. 

Again kindness turned her. A teacher invited her to a Christian meeting. She was about to say “no” when she saw tears splash from his eyes. She frankly stated she had tried repeatedly to be a Christian but failed and was not going to try again. Her teacher said Christ could assist her. Walking home, she felt hopelessly lost, finally crying out to Jesus to do something for her. “I was saved that hour.”

As she reached home, she remembered the red cow. She decided to face her nemesis at once. Whereas before she had stalked into the house, muddy shoes and all, this time she went to the back door and asked her mom for the milk pail. But her mother said, “That old beast will never try you again, I sold her today.” Townsley believed God’s hand was in this—not allowing her to be tempted above what she could bear. The next day she testified publicly of her salvation and asked for prayer. Her teacher sobbed. He had spent most of the previous night on his knees praying for her.

Eventually Townsley’s Bible studies led her to leave the Congregational Church and become a Baptist. Although terrified of water since a child, at about noon on this day, Sunday, 1 March 1874, she was baptized by immersion. That afternoon she wrote some verses about her experience. 

I stood beside the waters’ dreaded brink
And saw a grave;
I looked to Heaven, and rays of purest light
Gilded each wave. 

About that time, a friend astonished her with a message from the Lord: “You are meant to preach.” Although stunned at first, Townsley felt the Holy Spirit confirmed the words. And the Lord granted her much success. 

In one instance, two rough mill girls came to scoff. “I bade them leave, to return when they seriously desired Christ.” They dared the Holy Spirit to touch them. I said “Girls, at ten o’clock I shall be on my knees asking the Holy Spirit to shake you from head to heels!”

Shortly afterward, the pastor of that church wrote to say that the girls had come into an evening meeting crying aloud for mercy. “That woman’s Holy Ghost is shaking us over perdition. We are lost! Help us!”

After a decade of evangelistic work in eleven states, in 1885 she became pastor of Fairfield Church, Nebraska. A large committee of church leaders examined her and unanimously voted to ordain her.

—Dan Graves

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For more about Baptists in America, see CH 126

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