A 04 - The Minister's Wife in Frontier America

THE MINISTER’S WIFE IN FRONTIER AMERICA

Knowledge of the minister’s wife in frontier America is limited. What few brief glimpses we have of her are usually found in biographies or autobiographies. Some attempt has been made to piece together the story of the frontier minister and his family but, as one historical society has noted, “ The early clergy were too busy making history to devote much time to recording their deeds.” l5 The pattern of husband-wife relationships set forth in the Bible seems to have been perpetuated. The picture of the wife presented earlier from Prov. 31 was still largely applicable. Her realm was the home beside her hearth, spinning wheel, loom, and children. Small bits of information A HISTORICAL LOOK AT MINISTER’S WIFE 25 gleaned from various sources, and put together like pieces of a Jigsaw puzzle, extend our knowledge of the frontier minister’s wife. The frontier preacher frequently made his living as a teacher, storekeeper, or farmer. It was not uncommon for the preacher-husband to leave for an extended period to move into some new territory to establish a church. During these periods the wife was left to tend the farm, store, or school, in addition to caring for the children, who frequently came by the dozen. It is also known that the frontier minister’s wife sometimes taught school to maintain herself and family in the event of her husband’s death. Like their preacher-husbands, these women were a hardy lot. Their most inspiring contributions to taming the frontier may never be written. Like their husbands, they were too busy making history to spend time recording their deeds.

Someone has said that nothing is so persuasive as an idea whose time has come. The concept of the minister’s wife “the clergyman’s right to marry was one such idea, though a married clergy was only one aspect of the larger idea embodied in the Protestant Reformation. Eventually she was accepted as a full-fledged, legal member of the church family. She came to this country with these battles already won, though she faced new and different ones in an untamed country. Mrs. Granmer’s traveling box, replete with ventilating holes, has long ceased to be a necessity; however, one occasionally gets the impression that the high expectations placed upon the modern minister’s wife stffl cramps her style, much like the traveling box.