Episcopal Church Women: The First Hundred Years part 3

This story is excerpted from Episcopal Church Women of Minnesota: The First Hundred Years, published in 1982 and reprinted in 2020. 

In 1892, the Auxiliary published its first yearbook. Called a Report to the Board of Missions, it was fifteen pages long with a mauve cover lettered in deeper mauve and contained names of officers, a note on CPC, reports on money and Boxes, and other disbursements. On the last page, written in a strong hand—Mrs. Baxter’s?—are the words “33 branches.”

Many local auxiliaries at this time were varying the incessant preparation of boxes with study about the mission fields, recommended vehicles being the Spirit of Missions and the Record. They continued, however, as a matter of course, to send scholarship and Mite Box funds to Wuchow and to St. Mary’s in Shanghai; to Osaka; to certain domestic sites; and, in our own Diocese, to Miss Carter, Mrs. Colby, Breck School at Wilder, Sheltering Arms, St. Barnabas, etc. Meetings and organizations, though, seem to have taken center stage. The women of the Diocese now not only had an annual meeting, a mid-winter meeting, and a semiannual meeting, but also quarterly meetings for officers, special meetings with distinguished speakers, interparochial groups, interdenominational summer schools, study classes, and Quiet Days—these in addition to meetings of newly-formed Junior Auxiliaries and Babies’ Branches. Since such activities mostly touched city women, officers made great effort to reach those who lived in the country. For instance, one year, the indefatigable Mrs. Baxter went by train to eleven villages and wrote some 700 letters.

In 1895, the Auxiliary, now entirely sure of itself, welcomed the Triennial at Christ Church, St. Paul. The opening Communion Service seems to have been memorable. In the procession, there were, first, the parish vested choir, followed by every boys’ choir in the two cities; then, four priests, and, last, two bishops. The ushers were all clergymen; the rector of Christ Church placed the United Offering on the great gold Alms Basin; and Bishop Whipple presented it at the altar (in toto—$56,198.00; from Minnesota—$1,006.90). True, it was a women’s meeting—and there was not a woman in sight (women not yet being regarded as ecclesiastic timber) but, when 750 of them rose to make their Communions, it must have been an impressive sight—and even have given pause to the thoughtful.

That year, at General Convention, the Diocese had been divided into the Diocese of Minnesota and the Missionary Diocese of Duluth. The following year, the women of the new Diocese of Duluth organized an Auxiliary of their own, and Mrs. Brunson, president of the Minnesota Branch, had the pleasure of helping install her old friend and coworker, Mrs. J. S. Gilfillan, as its first president (November 15, 1896).

After Mrs. Baxter assumed leadership of the Minnesota group, the yearbook became more sophisticated and given to standard forms and tables. These tabulations, in the last year of the decade, show that the Auxiliary had 832 members in 49 branches. They had dispatched 42 Boxes valued at $2,085.50 and had contributed $981.72 in Red Mite Box funds. In addition, they had sent 42 magazine subscriptions to persons regularly on their list.

Before we leave this decade, it should be noted that in 1900, Bishop Whipple presented a gavel to the Auxiliary in behalf of Mesdames A. C. Hopses, Helen M. Torines, and David Bronson, in memory of Bishop Gilbert. It was made of wood from the old and historic Seabury Hall. Over the years, the gavel cracked, and, in 1918, it was reinforced with a silver band. In company with Father Gear’s Cross (acquired 1924), it has been handed down from president to president.