Category: Clara Wetherald

Clara Wetherald, Ida GageLeave a comment

Hear Our Voices and Respect Our Ministries: Wetherald and Gage’s Defense of Their Work

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Clara Wetherald was a gifted preacher and evangelist conducting revivals from coast to coast and turning thousands to Christ under her ministry. Her brother Frank Miller was led to Christ through her ministry and noted the massive impact of her work in her obituary. Ida Gage was also a gifted evangelist who preached in both Ohio and Michigan and also traveled to Colorado to hold revivals. She was responsible for establishing numerous church plants across Ohio during the early years of the Ohio conference. Both Gage and Wetherald were exceptional women, and while female evangelists were not uncommon in nineteenth … Continue reading Hear Our Voices and Respect Our Ministries: Wetherald and Gage’s Defense of Their Work

Clara Wetherald, Free Methodism, Ida GageLeave a comment

A Historical Overview on Divorce & What the Free Methodist Church Believes

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Since I’ve discovered that both Ida Gage and Clara Wetherald were divorced, I’ve been trying to better understand the Free Methodist Church’s position on divorce in the early twentieth century. Today I often hear people refer to the “good old days” when divorce was never an option. What both these women’s stories illustrate is that divorce is not something recent. It’s been a social problem for quite sometime. However, before the twentieth century women had few legal rights and could be trapped in abusive marriages without options. While, I’m not promoting divorce; I also don’t want to endorse people staying … Continue reading A Historical Overview on Divorce & What the Free Methodist Church Believes

Clara Wetherald6 Comments

John and Clara Wetherald’s Last Years of Life and Ministry

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“But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Romans 6:22 ESV).  The Rev. F.J. Calkins from the East Michigan Free Methodist Conference stands in front of a crowd of mourners reciting the verse from Romans. He is conducting for John Wetherald’s funeral service. It’s 1902. John passed away on October 12.  His final years were filled with heartbreak, financial difficulties, health issues and divorce.  Calkins wrote John Wetherald’s obit and notes “On account of financial embarrassment and throat troubles Brother Wetherald … Continue reading John and Clara Wetherald’s Last Years of Life and Ministry

Clara Wetherald, Free Methodist Women3 Comments

Clara Wetherald Part Three: Wife, Mother, Pastor

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Clara Wetherald was born Clarissa L. Miller around 1849. While Clarissa Miller was a very popular name during this time period, Her husband John Wetherald was born in New York in 1842 to William Wetherald and Hannah Ferris. John’s father was born in England and immigrated to the U.S. It appears at some point in his family’s history they changed the spelling of their name from “Wetherell” or “Witherall” to “Wetherald.” Sometime between John’s birth in 1842 and 1860 his family moved to Vienna, Genesee County, Michigan.  On Apr. 5 1866, John F. and Clara Miller married in Genesee County, … Continue reading Clara Wetherald Part Three: Wife, Mother, Pastor

Clara Wetherald, Free Methodist WomenLeave a comment

Finding Clara Wetherald Part Two

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In 1888 Clara Wetherald, a licensed evangelist and circuit riding preacher in Michigan, wrote a ministerial update published in the October 10, 1888, The Free Methodist. Wetherald had been sent to dedicate a new church in Royalton, Michigan, only to find on arrival that the congregation still needed to raise $369, and the building for the church was not completed. “It was a great cross to me to go to dedicate a church, as I consider myself a poor hand to raise money,” (5) Wetherald wrote. Yet, she led the congregation into a time of prayer on Saturday September 29, … Continue reading Finding Clara Wetherald Part Two

Clara Wetherald, Free Methodist WomenLeave a comment

Finding Clara Wetherald Part One

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19th century Free Methodist women lay leaders and pastors have become more than a rhetorical history project for me. They have become my friends. I want to sit down with Eliza Suggs and Emma Ray and over a cup of tea discuss temperance issues and entire sanctification. I want to talk to Ellen Roberts and Emma Sellew Roberts about what it was like to edit religious periodicals in the 19th century, and I want to talk to Clara Wetherald about what it was like to be a wife, mother, and circuit riding preacher in the mid 1800s. Out of all … Continue reading Finding Clara Wetherald Part One