CATHERINE M. ROKICKY
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood
In May of 1835, Lydia Andrews Finney
bade farewell to her husband as he
headed for his first look at Oberlin
College in Oberlin, Ohio. Mrs. Finney
and their three children would stay in
Cleveland with her parents until the
Reverend Charles Grandison Finney
settled himself as the professor of theol-
ogy in Oberlin.1 Separation
between the couple was far from a new experi-
ence because of the position of the
Reverend Finney as the head of Protestant
evangelicalism. Since their marriage in
1824, Lydia Finney supported her
husband in his ministry and took her
place at the heart of evangelicalism for
women by fulfilling her roles as the
wife of a very prominent minister and by
becoming a respected reformer in her own
right.
The world in which Lydia and Charles
lived centered on the great religious
revival that fired the hearts and minds
of thousands of Americans in the first
half of the nineteenth century, altering
the religious and political climate of
the young nation. In the social realm,
the Second Great Awakening heated
both men and women into storms of reform
activity. After undergoing a
soul-wrenching conversion experience,
the new evangelicals had to show their
thirst for salvation by participating in
reforms that endeavored to change the
sinful actions of their fellow men and
women. These reformers acted on the
philosophy of disinterested benevolence,
the idea that women and men should
not be concerned with the rewards they
could gain by doing good for others
but should act compassionately for the
greater glory of God. The reformers
became the trustees of other men's
souls, especially the souls of the sinners
whom they wanted to lead to salvation.2
Although reformers pervaded society,
women, such as Lydia Finney, par-
ticularly took an active role in
evangelicalism and reform. As reformers,
women found an acceptable avenue from
which to move out of the domestic
Catherine M. Rokicky is a Ph.D.
candidate in history at Kent State University. She would
like to thank Professor Frank L. Byre
for his invaluable criticisms of this paper.
1. Garth M. Rosell and Richard A.G.
Dupuis, eds., The Memoirs of Charles G. Finney: The
Complete Restored Text (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1989), 396 (hereafter Finney
Memoirs).
2. Alice Felt Tyler, Freedom's
Ferment: Phases of American Social History from the
Colonial Period to the Outbreak of
the Civil War (New York, 1944), 35;
Clifford S. Griffin,
Their Brothers' Keepers: Moral
Stewardship in the United States, 1800-1865 (New Brunswick,
N.J., 1960), xii, 6.
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood 171
sphere, confined to house and children,
and into a public arena to do good.
Since women possessed the distinction of
being morally superior to men,
they had a special duty to instill
virtue into the lives of others through re-
forms and benevolent organizations.
Through contact in reform movements,
women formed bonds amongst themselves at
the local, state, and national
levels and gained experience in organizational,
political, and social tech-
niques.3
The charged drama of the revival
experience often proved the key factor in
exciting women and men into conversion
and subsequent reform activity.
The responsibility for creating such an
atmosphere, by no means an easy
task, fell upon the evangelical
minister, the preacher leading the people.
Cultivating revival techniques to an art
form, the powerful and charismatic
Charles Finney successfully converted
thousands and soon became the recog-
nized head of evangelicalism. As his
wife, Lydia Andrews Finney became a
role model for evangelical women as
wife, mother, and reformer.
Lydia's background prepared her well for
the religious path which her life
would take. On March 8, 1804, in New
Britain, Connecticut, Lydia Root
Andrews was born unto Nathaniel and
Jerusha Sage Andrews, the eighth of
what would be ten children. As did many
New England families, the Andrews
family moved to the western frontier in
New York on a farm in Whitesboro,
Oneida County. The people of Oneida
County, as in other counties of west-
ern New York, had a strong New England
background and developed keen re-
ligious sensitivity and moral strength.
This region of New York became so
affected by religious revivalism that it
was called the "burned-over district".4
Amidst this charged religious
atmosphere, young Lydia grew. As a member
of the First Presbyterian Society in the
religious center of the township,
Lydia noticed the prominent role women
played in the church, as they made
up the majority of church members. Lydia
also experienced first-hand the de-
velopment of benevolent organizations as
a natural outgrowth of evangelical-
ism such as the Female Missionary
Society, which was founded by wives of
lawyers, and the Oneida Bible Society.5
These activities gave Lydia the
model for her later works in
evangelicalism and reforms but more immedi-
ately moved her toward her own
conversion.
3. Sara M. Evans, Born for Liberty: A
History of Women in America (New York, 1989),
73, 76; Keith E. Melder, Beginnings
of Sisterhood: The American Woman's Rights Movement,
1800-1850 (New York, 1977), 8, 39.
4. Julia Finney Monroe, "Some
Statistics Concerning the Finney Family," Charles G. Finney
Papers, 1792-1875, microfilm, roll 8,
Kent State University Library, Kent, Ohio (hereafter
Finney Papers); Whitney R. Cross, The
Burned-over District: The Social and Intellectual
History of Enthusiastic Religion in
Western New York, 1800-1850 (Ithaca,
1950), 4. The original
manuscript collection of the Finney
Papers is located at the Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin,
Ohio.
5. Mary P. Ryan, Cradle of the Middle
Class: The Family in Oneida County, New York,
1790-1865 (New York, 1981), 53, 60; Cross, Burned-over, 177.
172 OHIO HISTORY
For women, conversion often defined
their lives and was an intense and
emotional experience with God. In 1815
at the age of eleven, Lydia under-
went her conversion experience which led
her to seek actively the conversion
of others. When Lydia met Charles
Finney, she recognized that this lawyer,
although a choir director, was not
converted, and she prayed for the salvation
of his soul. Months after first having
met Lydia in Adams, New York,
Finney underwent a trying conversion
experience and afterward learned that
she had, for a long time, struggled
greatly in prayer for his soul.6 Although
Lydia undoubtedly had prayed for
Finney's conversion, she utilized her prayer
as an appropriate way to capture the
attention of the tall, handsome Finney
who had piercing blue eyes. Her
evangelical husband-hunting method proved
so effective that Finney never fully
recognized Lydia's other agenda in praying
for him. With the knowledge of Lydia's
prayer, Finney took a greater interest
in Lydia, and eventually asked her to
marry him.
Charles and Lydia were married at
Whitesboro on October 5, 1824, and
Lydia had to learn quickly what it meant
to be the wife of a devoted minister.
On the same day of his marriage, Finney
attended a Synod of Albany meet-
ing, leaving his new bride with her
parents. A day or two after the wedding,
Finney ventured to Evans Mills, New
York, where he was serving as a part-
time pastor. Planning on calling for his
wife in less than a week, Finney
was not reunited with her for over six
months. These separations did not
reflect a lack of feeling between the
couple, but rather showed the intense
devotion of Finney to his ministry.7
This devotion paid off rather quickly.
In 1827, Finney became the recog-
nized head of Protestant evangelicalism,
and Mrs. Finney shared the acclama-
tion with him. Since Finney supported
women's roles in the church, evan-
gelical women supported him and looked
naturally to Mrs. Finney as a model
because she played many roles in her
husband's ministry. The Finneys to-
gether revolutionized the role of the
minister's wife into a career in which the
woman gained personal satisfaction and
growth rather than languishing in the
role of the sacrificer and sufferer.8
6. Anne M. Boylan, "Evangelical
Womanhood in the Nineteenth Century: The Role of
Women in Sunday Schools," Feminist
Studies, 4(October, 1978), 67; Barbara Leslie Epstein,
The Politics of Domesticity: Women,
Evangelism, and Temperance in Nineteenth-Century
America (Middletown,
Conn., 1981), 55; Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, 60; Charles G.
Finney, "Last Sickness and Death of
Mrs. Finney," Oberlin Evangelist, 5 January 1848, 3;
Keith J. Hardman, Charles Grandison
Finney, 1792-1875: Revivalist and Reformer (Syracuse,
N.Y., 1987), 64.
7. Finney Memoirs, 109-14; G.
Frederick Wright, Charles Grandison Finney (Boston and
New York, 1891), 38. Rumors circulated
that Finney had married another woman and had a
child by another woman before he became
a Christian. See Finney Memoirs, 109; Stephen
Hull to William Lapham, 2 October 1827,
Finney Papers, roll 1.
8. Howard Alexander Morrison, "The
Finney Takeover of the Second Great Awakening
During the Oneida Revivals of
1825-1827," New York History, 59(January, 1978), 27-28;
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood 173
Mrs. Finney aided her husband's ministry
in the very important task of or-
ganizing female prayer meetings.
Wherever revivals were held, Finney be-
lieved, on account of his own personal
experience, that prayer played a major
role in conversion. The female prayer
meetings that Mrs. Finney organized
gave women a lively place to attend and
expand their utility outside of their
homes. At the meetings, Mrs. Finney led
the women in song and prayers.
Once Mrs. Finney left one revival for
another with her husband, the continu-
ance of prayer meetings varied. Many
prayer meetings waned after Mrs.
Finney left, indicating the necessity of
her presence owing to her appealing
and successful qualities as a spiritual
leader. Often, women wrote Mrs.
Finney to encourage their spiritual
guide to return so that the meetings would
hold more interest.9 Obviously,
the women held Mrs. Finney in high esteem
and valued her presence.
Prayer meetings at towns were, at first,
segregated according to sex because
of social propriety. Gradually, however,
men and women joined together in
prayer. Finney recognized the importance
of women in religion and thus did
not find fault with women praying in
mixed audiences. Rather, he encouraged
women's public speaking and praying for
the pragmatic purpose of advancing
his ministry. Finney's support for this
new measure revival technique
brought much criticism from other
ministers such as the Reverend Lyman
Beecher, who believed that women praying
in mixed assemblies was a viola-
tion of their femininity and would make
them vulgar. This issue was at the
center of the disagreement between the
ministers at the New Lebanon
Convention in July 1827 and was not
resolved. However, Finney left the
meeting as the recognized head of
evangelicalism with the intention to con-
tinue his support of female
participation in public prayer.10
As part of her husband's ministry, Mrs.
Finney also advocated female
prayer in mixed assemblies, but whether
or not she actually prayed in such
settings herself remains unclear. Lydia
M. Gilbert of Wilmington, Delaware,
whose husband was also a minister,
criticized Mrs. Finney for not engaging
in public prayer in mixed audiences:
"The Lord has given you prudence, but
you must also have zeal." Perhaps
Mrs. Finney's reserved nature and her own
struggle for prayer with God inhibited
her from the bold action of praying in
mixed assemblies.11
Leonard I. Sweet, The Minister's
Wife: Her Role in Nineteenth-Century American
Evangelicalism (Philadelphia, 1983), 76.
9. Hardman, Charles G. Finney, 102;
A.A. Flint to Mrs. Finney, 26 December 1826; M.
Sackett to Mrs. Finney, 28 February
1828; Henrietta Platt to Mrs. Finney, 26 December 1827, 5
January 1829, Finney Papers, rolls 1 and
2.
10. Hardman, Charles G. Finney, 85,
103, 127, 138, 146.
11. Hardman, Charles G. Finney, 85;
Lydia M. Gilbert to Mrs. Finney, February 1828,
Finney Papers, roll 1; Sweet, Minister's
Wife, 126-27.
174 OHIO
HISTORY
Mrs. Finney performed another service
for her husband's ministry by dis-
tributing tracts and visiting homes
during revivals to bolster attendance and
gain converts, a technique which she
labored at extensively during the revival
at Rochester, New York, in 1830-1831.12
This model of visitation brought
women out of the domestic sphere and
into public contact.
Additionally, Mrs. Finney helped to
determine the success of the ministry
by asking her female friends about the
general religious state of the towns
since she and her husband left, which
helped to ascertain its long-term impact.
As an active participant in the
revivals, Mrs. Finney also held special interest
in the fruits of her labors as well.
Women responded to specific questions
Mrs. Finney asked, and in many cases,
Mrs. Finney probably left certain
women in charge of informing her about
events in the town.13 These women
obviously felt themselves a special part
of revivalism and a special friend of
Mrs. Finney.
Some women wrote Mrs. Finney using her
as a channel to her husband,
possibly because they stood a better
chance of receiving a reply from her since
her husband was always so engrossed in
his revival work. Some found it
more respectable to write to Finney
through his wife. Many of the corre-
spondents also had other matters to
discuss with Mrs. Finney whom they held
in high esteem as a spiritual guide. Not
only did the women look to her as a
leader but envied Mrs. Finney's position
as she was "actively engaged in
winning souls to Christ."14
Mrs. Finney was not alone in her role as
she corresponded with ministers'
wives such as Emily S. Bartlett, Rhoda Churchill,
and C.C. Copeland.
These women confided in Mrs. Finney
about the challenges they faced in their
labors and looked to her for advice and
prayers. Amelia Ann (Flint) Norton
enjoyed a special friendship with Mrs.
Finney and discussed her challenges as
the wife of an evangelical minister,
Herman G. Norton. They discussed long
distances travelled, persistence in
their work, and the difficulty in dealing with
criticisms of revivals.15
The Reverend Finney certainly recognized
the important role his wife
played in his ministry.. Finney said:
"My dear wife... accompanied me in
12. Sweet, Minister's Wife, 127.
13. See, for example, Mary S. Wright to
Mrs. Finney, 29 March 1827; Juliet Pardee to Mrs.
Finney, 17 January 1828; Henrietta Platt
to Mrs. Finney, 22 January 1831; Ellen Brayton to
Mrs. Finney, 28 December 1831, Finney
Papers, rolls 1-3.
14. Mary S. Wright to Mrs. Finney, 29
March 1827; Helen Platt to Mrs. Finney, 17
December 1827; Maria J. Cushman to Mrs.
Finney, 25 October 1827; Charlotte Mosley to
Mrs. Finney, May 1827; Sarah Seward to
Mrs. Finney, 3 May 1828; Fanny M. Danton to Mrs.
Finney, 6 October 1826; Mary Hamilton
and Emily Curtis to Mrs. Finney, 21 February 1828;
quote, Almira Selden to Mrs. Finney, 5
June 1826, Finney Papers, rolls 1 and 2.
15. Finney Memoirs, 290; Sweet, Minister's Wife, 113; A.A. Norton to
Mrs. Finney, 24
May 1827, 8 March 1829, 4 July 1829, and
23 March 1829, Finney Papers, rolls 1 and 2.
Amelia was Mrs. Finney's closest friend.
See Hardman, Charles G. Finney, 470, note 37.
Lydia Finney and Evangelical Womanhood 175 |
|
my labors as an evangelist. She participated in my labors, and trials, my re- joicings and sorrows through many of the most searching and powerful re- vivals of religion." Finney also gave his wife credit for influencing his spiri- tual life: "My dear wife used to look up to me as her spiritual guide and teacher under God, but in justice to her I would say that she taught me my most valuable lessons. She showed me in many ways how to live".16 Mrs. Finney performed a decisive role in her husband's ministry, and it was a role which did not come easily for her. By nature, Mrs. Finney was "taciturn and reserved" and throughout the early revivals, "mild, unobtrusive and calm." Although she underwent the conversion experience at a young age, she lacked confidence in her salvation, and during revivals, she found her- self "deeply searched" and her heart broken up.17 Each revival conceivably held for her a challenge to her faith. Thus, it was of credit to her that she en- dured such self-sacrificing for her husband and his ministry. In addition to her spiritual self-sacrifice, Mrs. Finney had to take much of the responsibility for the couple's three children and then try to balance the family life with the ministry. This was not an easy task since the couple had
16. Finney, "Last Sickness," 3-4. 17. Ibid. |
176 OHIO
HISTORY
no real place to call home before they
moved to Oberlin in 1835. The
Finneys relied on accommodations
provided by people in revival towns.
Also, Mrs. Finney had the help of hired
servants to aid her with the chil-
dren.18
During the time Mrs. Finney was pregnant
with her first child, she took an
avid interest in both sabbath schools
and infant schools. One main purpose
of the sabbath schools was to help the
children along to a conversion experi-
ence. Infant schools were a type of
benevolent association as they provided
an education for children under the age
of eight whose parents otherwise could
not afford it. Mrs. Finney's interest in
the infant and sabbath school move-
ment involved her founding infant
schools in towns where she conducted re-
vival work with her husband. She also
sent her children to infant schools.19
Infant and sabbath schools kept
evangelical women fixed in the domestic
sphere, as they remained absorbed with
affairs of the home; yet they also al-
lowed women to move into the public
sphere by learning and utilizing orga-
nizational techniques.
Mrs. Finney had to make the transition
for her family when Finney shifted
his ministry from rural towns to large
cities. With the children, Mrs. Finney
had more difficulty accompanying her
husband on all his labors. When
Arthur and Lewis Tappan offered Finney
the pastorate at the Second Free
Church (Chatham Street Chapel) in New
York City, Finney took the oppor-
tunity to expand greatly his ministry
and obtain some family stability.20
The area of New York City in which the
Finneys set up their household
was an undesirable place. Residing near
the Chatham Street Chapel, the fam-
ily was surrounded by slums and in close
proximity to the notorious Five
18. Sweet, Minister's Wife, 87;
Charles Finney to Mrs. Finney, 10 November 1834, Robert
S. Fletcher Papers, Oberlin College
Archives (hereafter Fletcher Papers). The Finney children
were Helen Clarissa Finney, born 1828;
Charles Beman Finney, born 1830; and Frederic
Norton Finney, born 1832. Mrs. Finney
especially needed the help of servants when she was
very ill at Oberlin. See S.R. Ingraham
to Mrs. Finney, 16 January 1847; E.H. Lowe to Mrs.
Finney, 7 April 1845; L.L. Webb to Mrs.
Finney, 5 February 1846, Finney Papers, roll 4. Mrs.
Finney also had to deal with the arrest
of her brother Philip on charges of counterfeiting in
Canada. He was eventually cleared of the
charges. See C.J. Andrews and N. Andrews to Mr.
and Mrs. Finney, 6 August 1827; Mary Ann
Beebe and N. Andrews to Mr. and Mrs. Finney, 21
August 1827, Finney Papers, roll 1.
19. Keith Melder, "Ladies
Bountiful: Organized Women's Benevolence in Early
Nineteenth Century America," New
York History, 48(July, 1967), 237; Linda F. Geary,
Balanced in the Wind: A Biography of
Betsey Mix Cowles (Lewisburg, Pa.,
1989), 23-24;
Sweet, Minister's Wife, 160. See
also Nancy O'Brien to Mrs. Finney, 1 November 1829; E.B.
Woodbury to Mrs. Finney, 9 January 1830;
A.A. Norton to Mrs. Finney, 2 November 1830;
S.W. Selden to Mrs. Finney, 11 June
1834, Finney Papers, rolls 2 and 3.
20. Hardman, Charles G. Finney, 250-51;
Arthur Tappan (1786-1865) and Lewis Tappan
(1788-1873) were wealthy New York
merchants who were involved in reform movements and
monetarily supported them and other
evangelical projects.See Lewis Tappan, The Life of Arthur
Tappan (New York, 1970, reprint of New York, 1870) and Bertram
Wyatt-Brown, Lewis
Tappan and the Evangelical War
Against Slavery (New York, 1971,
reprint of Cleveland,
1969).
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood 177
Points, a slum area characterized by
high crime and mortality rates, numerous
brothels, and poor sanitation. When the
cholera epidemic hit New York City
in early summer 1832, the Finneys'
neighborhood was hit especially hard be-
cause of the slum conditions and
poverty.21
Despite these problems with New York
City, Mrs. Finney was excited to
establish a family household for the
first time. She described fondly their
first nights in their residence: "It is 2 weeks since we commenced
[housekeeping] and I now write you for
the first time in "our own hired house
... a few of the first nights . . . we slept on the floor without a blanket
or
bed quilt to cover us, but as the
weather was warm we got along quite
well."22
The home in New York City helped Mrs.
Finney deal with the sale of her
family farm, the place of her childhood
memories and the place she and her
husband had considered home since they
had not had a place of their own.
She wrote, "when I reflect that I
can no longer call it home, my tears flow,
and I cannot refrain from weeping
bitterly."23 Mrs. Finney obviously was a
very emotional and sentimental woman.
The cholera epidemic in New York City
took its toll on the Finney resi-
dence and forced them to retreat to the
country until the epidemic subsided.
Upon return to New York, Finney was
installed officially as pastor of the
Chatham Street Chapel. However, this happy
occasion was soon tempered
with the bleak realization that Finney
had contracted cholera. Since he had
not fully recovered at the beginning of
1834, Finney decided to take a
Mediterranean voyage, reasoning that the
sea air might help him recuperate.
Mrs. Finney had to stay behind to care
for the children, all of whom were un-
der age five. In July 1834, Finney
returned although in no better health than
when he had left. Later that year, the
couple was separated again, but the sep-
arations seemed to bring them closer. In
one emotional moment, Finney
wrote: "I want to see you
unspeakably."24
Although Mrs. Finney spent much of her
time caring for the children, she
made time to continue her work in her
husband's ministry. From his pulpit
at the Chatham Street Chapel, Finney
encouraged his followers to participate
21. Carroll Smith Rosenberg, Religion
and the Rise of the American City: The New York City
Mission Movement, 1812-1870 (Ithaca, 1971), 34-37; Lydia Finney to Nathaniel and
Jerusha
Andrews, 15 July 1832, Finney Papers,
roll 3.
22. Hardman, Charles G. Finney, 256;
Lydia Finney to Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Andrews,
15 July 1832, Fletcher Papers.
23. Hardman, Charles G. Finney, 256;
Nathaniel Andrews to Mr. and Mrs. Finney, 7 July
1832; quote, Charles and Lydia Finney to
Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Andrews, 15 July 1832,
Fletcher Papers.
24. Hardman, Charles G. Finney, 258,
266-68; Finney Memoirs, 357, footnote 10, 366, 372;
Sarah Beebe to Mrs. Finney, 20 December
1833; George and Lydia Finney to Mrs. Finney, 31
January 1834, Finney Papers, roll 3;
quote, Charles Finney to Mrs. Finney, 10 November 1834;
and see 24 November 1834, Fletcher
Papers.
178 OHIO HISTORY
in reform movements, and many of the
leaders of reform in New York City
were his converts. Mrs. Finney labored
extensively in the moral reform
movement in New York City and remained
involved in the movement
throughout her life.
Moral reform in New York City began with
the support of the Tappan
brothers who wanted to discourage their
young male employees, many of
whom came from small rural New York
towns, from falling prey to the
temptations of prostitution in the city.
Additionally, they sympathized with
the impoverished women who were
exploited by these immoral men. Arthur
Tappan thus founded the New York
Magdalen Society in 1831 and elected the
Reverend John R. McDowall as the
chaplain of the society. Since McDowall
offended the city's wealthiest and most
powerful men by implicating them
publicly in the sins of prostitution,
the society was forced out of existence.
McDowall, however, continued his work by
encouraging the formation of
moral reform societies at the church
level throughout New York City. In
May 1834, the women of New York, many
followers of Finney, formed the
New York Female Moral Reform Society,
and Mrs. Finney was named as the
First Directress.25
In that position, Mrs. Finney led the
women to act in ways which society
at the time did not deem proper for
women. Violating sexual taboos, women
had to discuss and face head-on the
evils of prostitution. More defiantly ig-
noring societal constraints, the women,
in the presence of godly men, visited
brothels early on Sunday mornings,
leading the prostitutes and their clients in
prayer.26 Whether or not Mrs.
Finney actually participated in these visits is
unclear. Because of her reserved nature,
she may have shied away from this
activity, much as she hesitated to pray
publicly in mixed assemblies.
However, she did head the organization
that championed these measures, and
her husband encouraged the women to
employ such methods from his pulpit.
Some methods which the society used
clearly came from their leader, Mrs.
Finney. Always an advocate of the power
of prayer, Mrs. Finney influenced
the society's emphasis on the use of
prayer during visits to the brothels and at
weekly prayer meetings. Furthermore,
Mrs. Finney probably swayed the soci-
ety's decision to circulate Bibles and
tracts, techniques which she had perfected
in labors for her husband's ministry.
The ultimate goal of the society, to
convert the spiritual state of the
sinners, also originated from the Finneys' be-
liefs about reform. To meet this goal,
the Society established a House of
Reception which would provide a place of
refuge for the penitent and teach
them new trades.27
25. Tappan, Arthur Tappan, 111-14;
Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise, 100-03; Advocate of
Moral Reform, II, no. 6 (June, 1834), 44-45, Fletcher Papers.
26. Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise,
107, 109-10.
27. Ibid., 109-12. The House of
Reception always had a small number of inmates, and, in
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood 179
As head of the New York Female Moral
Reform Society, Mrs. Finney
guided some of the most radical
evangelical women of the day. In an organi-
zation run entirely by females, the
women were radical because of the stance
they took against men and the double
standard. They reversed the stereotype
of licentiousness and blamed wicked men
for debauching the inherently pious
female. In essence, they found a
somewhat acceptable manner in which to re-
prove men in a male-dominated society.
While the women were radical in
their rhetoric, they were simultaneously
conservative as they remained within
the family unit, which was male
dominated, to deliver such hostile dis-
course.28 Also, they
expressed traditional values as they hoped to eliminate
prostitution so that their children
could grow up in a pure society. Mrs.
Finney, although humble, probably felt
satisfaction in being a pious female
in a world filled with ungodly men.
While Mrs. Finney took guidance from her
husband concerning the type of
work she performed in his ministry,
Finney also looked to his devoted wife
for direction. She served him as his
confidant. He looked to her for advice
concerning his ministry in New York,
since abolitionism had captured the
people's attention over evangelicalism,
and because he was weakened by
cholera. With uncertainty surrounding
his ministry in New York, Finney
was open to the offer of becoming
professor of theology at the Oberlin
Collegiate Institute in the Western
Reserve of Ohio. This offer came as a re-
sult of abolitionist activity led by a
student, Theodore Dwight Weld, at Lane
Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. Students
rebelled at restrictions placed on their
abolitionist activity and left Lane
Seminary. They agreed to come to Oberlin
if certain conditions were met, and one
was for Finney to become the profes-
sor of theology there. The Tappan
brothers encouraged Finney to accept this
post because they wanted the Institute
to be a place where missionaries would
be trained. They promised Finney their
financial support for the endeavor.
With the agreement that Finney would
spend his winters in New York preach-
ing and his summers in Oberlin, Finney
accepted the post as professor of the-
ology.29
When Finney arrived with his family in
Cleveland, Ohio, in May 1835, he
left his wife and children there with
her parents and proceeded to Oberlin
March 1835, housed only fourteen women.
In the Summer 1836, the house closed down after
an incident when the inmates seized
control of it.
28. Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise,
118-19.
29. Hardman, Charles G. Finney, 262-65,
273; Lewis Tappan to Mrs. Finney, 18 July 1834,
Finney Papers, roll 3; Charles Finney to
Lydia Finney, 10 November 1834, 24 November 1834,
Fletcher Papers; Finney Memoirs, 382.
Theodore Dwight Weld (1803-1895) was a reluctant
convert at a Finney revival who became
prominent in temperance and abolitionism. See
Robert H. Abzug, Passionate
Liberator: Theodore Dwight Weld and the Dilemma of Reform
(New York, 1980). For a complete account
of the Lane Rebellion see Lawrence T. Lesick,
The Lane Rebels (Metuchen, N.J., 1980). The other conditions of the
Lane Rebels were free-
dom of speech and the admission of
blacks.
180 OHIO HISTORY
alone, planning to send for his family
when he was settled. The Oberlin
Collegiate Institute Finney set out for
was founded in 1833 as a manual labor
school, which combined the principles of
study and physical labor. The labor
served not only as a method of payment
for the education, but also as a way
to build character. The Institute
developed anomalistically as it was the first
school to practice coeducation and admit
blacks. The education of women
was deemed important because women were
responsible for the moral growth
of children and thus had an important
impact on future generations. The
Institute was not founded on any basis
of feminism but allowed the education
of women as a way to social perfection.
Blacks were admitted out of eco-
nomic necessity. At the time of the Lane
rebellion, the Institute was in dire
financial straits and needed money that
the Lane rebels would bring with
them.30 During its early
years, it was an institution of radical practices based
on rather pragmatic reasoning, but the
pragmatism would soon change as
more radical ideas would prevail at
Oberlin.
The new living conditions for the Finney
family at Oberlin differed greatly
from those they had experienced in New
York City. Oberlin was a town built
on swampy land in Russia Township,
Lorain County, Ohio. The land was
considered so worthless by its owners
that they agreed to donate the land in
1833 for the purpose of a manual labor
school. By the time the Finneys ar-
rived in 1835, conditions were somewhat
better as trees had been cut down on
the square, and some houses and one
college building had been constructed.
Nevertheless, the town remained carved
out of the wilderness. At first, the
Finneys lived in the available
buildings. With Arthur Tappan's money, a
Finney household was built which was
considered quite pleasing and spa-
cious. The Finney house was a two-story
brick structure which some resi-
dents of Oberlin judged as too elegant
for the community.31 Clearly, it was
much nicer than the residence the
Finneys had lived in at New York.
At Oberlin, Mrs. Finney continued to
devote her time to the important task
of child-rearing and still found time to
partake in much reform activity. Her
labors for the Oberlin Maternal
Association coincided well with her work as a
mother.
A group of eight mothers founded the
Oberlin Maternal Association in
1835, and by 1847, membership grew to
106 mothers and 370 children. The
society formed to develop techniques and
other measures best suited to raise
children under the Lord's influence. The
women resolved to meet every week
30. Finney Memoirs, 396; Robert
Samuel Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College: From Its
Foundation through the Civil War (Oberlin, 1943), 34, 117, 168, 353-75; Lori D.
Ginzberg,
"Women in an Evangelical Community:
Oberlin 1835-1850," Ohio History, 89(Winter, 1980),
84. It was not called Oberlin College
until after 1850.
31. Fletcher, Oberlin College, 71-72,
91, 94, 187; Hardman, Charles G. Finney, 304. The
Finney household was located on the
present site of what is now Finney Chapel on Tappan
Square.
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood 181
and open and close meetings with prayer.
At the meetings, they planned to
read works relating to their established
cause. At every quarterly meeting,
female children between three and
sixteen years of age and male children be-
tween three and fourteen years of age
were invited to attend the meetings to
receive instruction for their minds and
exercises of the Holy Spirit. All
members of the association had the duty
to pray for their children, and if pos-
sible with them, as well as read
scriptures. They also had to impress upon
their children the necessity of
repentance. Mothers also suggested to mem-
bers successful methods for Christian
motherhood. Members declared that
their children belonged to God, not to
them, thus showing their sincere devo-
tion to their religion.32 Through
such measures, women hoped to continue
their own personal evangelical activity
and spread it to their children as well.
They also sought to gain support as
Christian mothers working together in
the difficult task of child rearing. The
association also performed a social
function, giving women a chance to meet
with and make friends.
Mrs. Finney experienced much success and
satisfaction in her work with
the maternal association. In addition to
holding the highest office at Oberlin
as First Directress, she also served as
secretary. Mrs. Finney was a recog-
nized leader at the meetings. She often
opened the meetings with prayer, a
natural responsibility for her as she
had led women in prayer at the New York
Female Moral Reform Society and also at
prayer meetings in conjunction
with her husband's ministry. Mrs. Finney
served on special committees to
revise the society's constitution and to
speak with a local teacher concerning
the mothers' dissatisfaction with the
morals propagated in the school. Mrs.
Finney read articles to the women on
subjects such as the duty of mothers,
and she suggested topics for discussion
such as the regulation of social inter-
course for children.33
On issues which touched her deeply, Mrs.
Finney spoke extensively to the
mothers. In one dramatic account, she
shared with the women her temptation
in dealing with doubts about parents'
covenant to the Lord. The "Minutes of
the Maternal Association" record
this account: "Mrs. C.G. Finney gave some
account of the dealings of the Lord with
her the past winter. Satan had sev-
eral times tempted her to doubt the
reality of the Covenant to Parents. She
had been sorely tried, and her mind in
great darkness respecting it, but from
all these temptations the Lord had
delivered her. They had even strengthened
her faith, and she now could so
implicitly trust the faithfulness of God, that
she would hardly be more confirmed in
her assurance if He should speak in a
32. "Minutes of the Maternal
Association," Oberlin College Archives, Annual Report
1847(hereafter Mat.Assoc.); Fletcher,Oberlin
College, 585; "Constitution of the Maternal
Association," Fletcher Papers.
33. Mat. Assoc., 2 March 1842, 8 March
1837, Annual Report 1848, 7 April 1841, 4 June
1845, 7 May 1845, 2 December 1840.
182 OHIO HISTORY
voice from heaven, and say "I will
be a God to thee and thy seed."34 After a
trying experience, she had renewed faith
in God. This coincided with the reli-
gious struggles Mrs. Finney had
undergone. She was a woman of great in-
tensity, emotion, and seriousness
regarding the Lord, and this characteristic
manifested itself in many aspects of her
life.
Mrs. Finney warned the women of undue
labor interfering with the great
task of training the immortal souls of
children, which might well result in
the injury of the mothers' health. With
this statement, most likely, Mrs.
Finney was conveying her personal
experiences with guilt and regret. She
had labored extensively to aid her
husband's ministry and in reform and
benevolent organizations. She always had
experienced problems with her
health, and here she blamed her poor
health on her labors and regretted the ne-
glect her children experienced such as
separation from one or both parents.35
Another topic which Mrs.Finney took
seriously was the subduing of chil-
dren's wills. She believed once a mother
broke a child's will, she had to keep
it suppressed. For Mrs. Finney, this was
the most important point for a
young mother to learn. The "Minutes
of the Maternal Association" records:
"Mrs. Finney said her own mind had
been much interested of late and was
constantly becoming more and more so in
the importance of rightly subduing
the wills of our children-thought there
had been much wrong teaching on
this point-we were wont to suppose that
when work had once conquered the
will of a child the work was done,
whereas the most difficult part remained to
be secured, vis, keeping it subdued.
Mrs. F thought that after all that could
be said this was the great
thing in the training of children and very important
that young mothers especially should
understand it."36 Mrs. Finney probably
reasoned that through subjugation of the
will, the child would also submit to
God and undergo a conversion experience,
which she emphasized.
A unique approach Mrs. Finney added to
the Maternal Association was
gathering support for a Paternal
Association to do for the father what the
Maternal Association did for the mother.
It was a method to get the father
more actively involved in his children's
growth. This was a very clever way
for Mrs. Finney to get her husband
involved with their children's develop-
ment, a responsibility he had left
almost entirely up to her. During the
Paternal Association's relatively short
existence, it met in conjunction with
the Maternal Association. Topics
discussed included the unnecessarily harsh
methods fathers used on their children.
Such tyrannical and arbitrary power
served only as destructive to the
children's love and self-confidence. The ten-
derheartedness of women more
appropriately mixed firmness and love.
Women obviously took the opportunity to
criticize their husbands in front of
34. Ibid., 2 March 1842.
35. Ibid., April 1842.
36. Ibid., Nov. 1846.
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood 183
other men which would have been awkward
in a setting outside the associa-
tions' meeting. Also, the women
expressed their feelings of superiority in
child rearing during the discussion.37
The Paternal Association failed where
the Maternal Association thrived be-
cause fathers preferred to leave the
responsibility for children to the mothers
and probably did not appreciate the
criticism the women gave them.38 In ad-
dition, the Maternal Association offered
women the chance to professionalize
their special roles as mothers which was
considered part of their domestic
sphere at the time. Although the women
worked outside the home and in the
maternal association, they were still
entrenched in the domestic sphere be-
cause their labors dealt with children.
While the maternal association widened
these women's roles outside of the home,
it did not offer them radical change
because they were still confined to
their roles as mothers. Evangelical wom-
anhood expanded women's sphere outside
of the home, but not always in a
revolutionary manner.
Because of her recognized position as
the leading figure in the Maternal
Association, women from across the
country and across the ocean wrote to
Mrs. Finney for advice. Anna Hill of
London, England, asked Mrs. Finney
about her beliefs regarding parents'
obligation to their child's salvation. Mrs.
Finney thought parents had the power to
bring about their children's salva-
tion, and Anna wanted to know how
culpable parents were when children ex-
perienced only darkness. Anna also
explained that England lagged behind
America in regards to maternal
associations. Other women asked Mrs.
Finney to send publications for mothers,
opinions on raising children, and
health during pregnancy.39 Serving
as a guide and figurehead for women cer-
tainly did not present a new challenge
for Mrs. Finney because she had grown
accustomed to it with her previous
evangelical labors.
In addition to her labors in the
Maternal Association, Mrs. Finney contin-
ued her work in moral reform as a
prominent member of the Oberlin chapter
of the American Female Moral Reform
Society. She served as the Oberlin
Moral Reform Society's secretary and as
the vice-president of the American
Female Moral Reform Society delegation
from Ohio. Women of the Moral
Reform Society at Oberlin proclaimed
their major purpose in accordance with
the national society: to rid the country
of the sin of licentiousness. They
proposed to do this by themselves
refraining from licentious conversation,
promoting purity in themselves, their
friends, and their acquaintances, and to
reform those who had lost their virtue.
They proclaimed that men more so
37. Ibid., 2 May 1842, 10 May 1842,
Annual Reports, 1842 and 1843.
38. Robert S. Fletcher explains that
perhaps the Paternal Association did not thrive because
men were active in agricultural and
horticultural societies. See Fletcher, Oberlin College, 590.
39. Anna Hill to Mrs. Finney, 24 August
1840, Fletcher Papers; Susan Farnum to Mrs.
Finney, 8 April 1840; Adaline Chapin to
Mrs. Finney, 4 January 1844; C.G. Ingersoll to Mrs.
Finney, 10 February 1845, Finney Papers,
roll 4.
184 OHIO HISTORY
than women had to take the blame for the
sin of licentiousness. Thus, they
pledged to discourage women from any
prolonged visits with men.
Moreover, they supported marriage as a
way to prevent licentiousness.40
At the Society's quarterly meetings,
Mrs. Finney played a major role. She
often opened the meetings with prayer
because women looked upon her as a
spiritual guide. Also she moved to amend
articles of the Society's constitu-
tion. Her most valuable contributions
came when she shared with the mem-
bers of the society her views on moral
reform. Indicative of her spiritual na-
ture, Mrs. Finney believed that reform
of any kind meant nothing unless the
person engaging in reform had herself
reformed her own heart. For the mem-
bers of the Society, Mrs. Finney read
passages from the scriptures discussing
fornication and adultery, and told of
the importance of education in securing
moral purity. As a woman who traveled
much, Mrs. Finney could accurately
tell the women of the potential dangers
they faced in steamboats and hotels on
account of immorality which thrived in
such places. Mrs. Finney became a
lifetime member of the American Female
Moral Reform Society for her ef-
forts in the cause.41
The anti-slavery movement, having such
an outpouring of support at
Oberlin, also received the time and
efforts of Mrs. Finney. She joined the
Ohio Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, which
pursued its cause in various man-
ners. At the convention in May 1839 held
in Putnam, Ohio, at which Mrs.
Finney was called to the chair, the
Society resolved to use petitions to end
slavery in the District of Columbia and
to help in the education of colored
people so that they might improve their
status in society. The following
year at the convention, the women
described their visits to colored settlements
and the steps taken to help their
people. In its efforts for education, the
Society employed twenty-nine teachers
for colored schools who not only
wanted to teach the people in the
settlements but also to develop in them a
moral purity of heart.42 While
Mrs. Finney's personal activities in the work
of the Society remain unclear, her support
for the Society's work as a mem-
ber was definite.
Mrs. Finney supported her husband's
activities in the Ohio Anti-Slavery
Society in which he served as chairman
and also vice-president. She often ac-
companied him to the conventions. Mrs.
Finney's presence with her husband
at the meetings showed her support for
his ideas concerning abolitionism.
Also, the Reverend and Mrs. Finney
seemed to have one heart concerning re-
40. Fletcher, Oberlin College, 302;
"Minutes of the Oberlin Female Moral Reform Society,"
Constitution, Oberlin College Archives
(hereafter OFMRS). The New York Female Moral
Reform Society changed its name to the
American Female Moral Reform Society in 1837 and
accepted chapters from across the
country. See Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise, 203.
41. OFMRS, June 1840, 29 October 1844,
19 December 1843, 28 September 1842, 12
October 1844.
42. Fletcher, Oberlin College, 245.
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood 185
form, and on anti-slavery, they probably
did not differ. Finney urged disobe-
dience to the law if it contradicted
higher law; thus, he was for disobeying
fugitive slave laws. Finney felt deeply
for the cause of anti-slavery but he re-
jected the beliefs of those who placed
abolitionism ahead of evangelicalism,
hence indicating the primacy of religion
in his ministry. To counteract those
who placed anti-slavery over
evangelicalism, Finney had to focus his congre-
gation on the duties they had to the
slave. The Oberlin Maternal Association
and the Female Anti-Slavery Society took
Finney's advice and helped care for
fugitive slaves.43
Besides her reform activities, Mrs.
Finney took part in the education of fe-
males at Oberlin which was modeled after
leading women's seminaries in the
East. However, it had the distinguishing
characteristic of allowing women to
take their advanced classes with men,
which often made the Institute subject
to harsh criticism. Women studied
algebra, Greek, anatomy, and other sub-
jects with male students. When certain
parts of a class were considered too
delicate for females to handle, such as
studying a corpse in physiology,
women sometimes excused themselves from
class, or the faculty tried to
make compromises. Although women
attended classes with the men, they
received a certificate rather than a
degree upon completion of the ladies'
course.44
Mrs. Finney received criticism because
of Oberlin's peculiar stance on fe-
male education. Her good friend Mrs.
Norton found coeducation at Oberlin
"revolting" and exclaimed she
could never approve of it. In fact, she con-
demned it. However, she pronounced
herself a firm advocate of female educa-
tion if the education was exclusively
for females. Despite her adamant feel-
ings against Oberlin, she and Mrs.
Finney remained friends.45
Mrs. Finney served the Female Department
at Oberlin as a member of the
Ladies' Board of Managers, a group
consisting of the wives of faculty mem-
bers. Along with the principal of the
department, the Board saw that the fe-
male students' social and academic life
ran smoothly. The Ladies' Board dis-
cussed cases of improper conduct and
provided board for students.
Mrs. Finney used her influence on the
Board to see that the Female
Department ran as she saw fit. In one
case, she led the effort to dismiss Mary
Ann Adams as principal because she
disagreed with Adams' views on female
education. Miss Adams supported the
position of Antoinette Brown who was
studying theology at Oberlin. While Miss
Adams agreed to let Miss Brown
teach to support her studies, the
members of the Ladies' Board would not let
43. Robert Price, "The Ohio
Anti-Slavery Convention of 1836," Ohio State Archeological
and Historical Quarterly, 45 (April, 1936), 182; Essig, "Lord's Free
Man," 30-31; Fletcher,
Oberlin College, 397.
44. Geary, Balanced, 38; Marlene
D.Merrill,"Daughters of America Rejoice: The Oberlin
Experiment," Timeline, 4(October-November,
1987), 13, 16.
45. A.A. Norton to Mrs. Finney, 5
January 1836 and 11 March 1839, Finney Papers, roll 3.
186 OHIO HISTORY
her teach at all, and led by Mrs.
Finney, the Board sought the removal of
Miss Adams as principal. Mrs. Finney
supported women in their role as
ministers' wives, but she did not agree
that they should become ministers
themselves. The faculty at Oberlin
agreed with this position. While Mrs.
Finney professionalized the role of the
minister's wife through her work on
the Ladies' Board, she did not revolutionize
the role of the female in the
church. As a member of the faculty, her
husband defended this position.
However, he supported the undaunted Miss
Brown in his rhetoric class as he
called on her to speak often.
Apparently, neither he nor Mrs. Finney con-
fused support for women in public
speaking with support for women as min-
isters.46
As a member of the Ladies' Board, Mrs.
Finney accepted much responsibil-
ity. Because she was concerned with the
professionalization of minister's
wives, she and her husband served as
matchmakers for ministers and their
mates. Also, Mrs Finney helped female
students at Oberlin as a spiritual
counselor. Women who desired the females
they knew to attend Oberlin con-
tacted Mrs. Finney for help. One mother
expressed desperation to have her
daughter attend Oberlin because she was
involved in an undesirable relation-
ship with a man, and the mother hoped a
distance between them would end
the relationship. Mrs. Finney took a
special interest in the student as she
tried to discourage such unseemly
relationships in her moral reform efforts,
and kept the mother informed of her
daughter's state at Oberlin.47
In addition to the demands of reform
activity and the Female Department,
Mrs. Finney had to care for her family,
which underwent more growth at
Oberlin. On May 16, 1837, Mrs. Finney
gave birth to a girl, Julia Rice
Finney. On May 16, 1841, Sarah Sage
Finney was born, and on March 16,
1844, the last of the Finney children was
born, Delia Andrews Finney.48
Mrs. Finney took her role as a mother
very seriously as would be expected
by her reform activities. She encouraged
her children to keep up their studies
by using some techniques which teachers
in infant schools might have used.
For example, she described to Norton the
countryside and then asked him to
use his knowledge of geology and decide
if the land was primary or secondary.
She told Julia a story to emphasize the
necessity of devotion and love to the
Lord. Clearly, the presence of God in
her children's life was foremost in her
mind, and she tried to fulfill her role
as a mother to make her children's souls
46. Merrill,"Daughters," 14;
Fletcher, Oberlin College, 683; Sweet, Minister's Wife, 94,
125; Emily S. Bartlett to Mrs. Finney,
27 April 1846; Alice Welch Cowles to Henry Cowles, 2
January 1838, Antoinette Brown
Blackwell, "Reminiscences" notes taken by Alice Stone
Blackwell,19 August 1903, Fletcher
Papers;Finney,"Last Sickness," 3.
47. Sweet, Minister's Wife, 92-93;
S.H. Dalleber to Mrs. Finney, 2 July 1836, 9 August 1836,
10 September 1836; Roxana Crosby to Mrs.
Finney, 12 September 1835, Finney Papers, roll 3.
48. Monroe, "Some Statistics,"
Finney Papers, roll 8. Sarah died in 1843, not yet two years
old. Delia died in 1852 at the age of
eight.
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood 187
conducive to conversion. She told her
children that nothing compared to
God's presence, and they should seek Him
out at all times. Mrs. Finney be-
lieved that children's wills had to
succumb so that they could experience
Christ. She exclaimed, "O that my
little children would live wholly for the
Lord, give up your wills entirely."
Her moral reform activities guided efforts
to instill in her children a sense of
purity. She expressed the desire that they
all be "pure holy children."
Also she specifically addressed her sons regarding
purity, telling Norton to "be a
pure minded boy, then you will have a pure
mind when you get to be a man."
Besides the spiritual well-being of her
children, Mrs. Finney saw to it that
they received good physical care and ate
properly.49
Although Mrs. Finney had previously felt
anxious about the salvation of
her own soul, she gained much in her
religious self-confidence at Oberlin.
She opened up to her husband as she
never had before regarding her spiritual
life. After she left her husband a
letter explaining the state of her soul,
Finney noticed that his wife entered a
new spiritual world full of light and
grace. From this moment on, Mrs. Finney
never again doubted her own reli-
gious strength.50
This confidence could have unfolded for
several reasons. For the first time
since they married, the Finneys had a
home of their own for themselves and
the children which provided stability
and security for the family. During the
years at Oberlin the revivals did not
have the same intensity of earlier work,
and the revivals had been the sources of
Mrs. Finney's intensive searching and
self-doubt. Mrs. Finney also traveled
less during her years at Oberlin, which
relieved some pressures. At Oberlin,
Mrs. Finney established herself in the
Maternal Association, the Moral Reform
Society, and the Female
Department. This certainly increased her
self-confidence and earned her friends
who were constants in her daily life,
rather than just correspondents. Perhaps,
too, Mrs. Finney matured, and this
increased her spiritual faith.
Whatever the explanation for her newly
found spirituality, Mrs. Finney
needed it to fulfill all of her duties
as mother, wife, and reformer. Mrs.
Finney also needed strength to help her
through some family troubles. In
1845, problems seemed to abound in the
Finney household. In September,
Mrs. Finney received word that her
father had died. Then in May, the
Finneys' eldest child, Helen, married,
at the age of seventeen, a young
Oberlin professor. Mr. and Mrs. Finney
despaired over Helen's impulsive-
ness because they had plans for her in
the missionary field. In August 1847,
Helen's husband died, leaving her
expecting their first child.51
49. Mrs. Finney to Helen and Charles
Finney, 19 July 1842, Finney Papers, roll 4.
50. Finney, "Last Sickness,"
3.
51. Sarah M. Chase to Mrs. Finney, 3
September 1845, Finney Papers, roll 4; Finney
Memoirs, 402; Sweet, Minister's Wife, 91. Helen married William Cochran.
188 OHIO HISTORY
Family trials aside, Mrs. Finney had to
deal with her own failing health.
In the Fall of 1844, the couple realized
the seriousness of her illness. After
Finney had finished preparations for a
trip to New York, Mrs. Finney began
coughing up blood so profusely that she
almost choked to death. Her hus-
band reacted quickly to the desperate
situation: "I took her in my arms, held
her head over the foot-tub, and soothed
her as much as I could without giving
any alarm to any of the members of the
family." Mrs. Finney showed no fear
throughout the incident. She came from a
consumptive family, and she was
not shocked by the events. Finney,
however, thought surely the Lord was tak-
ing his wife. After he washed the blood
from her mouth, he laid her in bed
and stayed with her, checking her
breathing and pulse constantly. Mrs.
Finney recovered from this incident and
never bled again at the lungs; how-
ever, she still remained afflicted with
pulmonary consumption.52
In August 1847, just before commencement
at Oberlin, Finney and his two
sons caught typhoid fever. For three
weeks, Mrs. Finney maintained her
health and took care of her husband and
children. However, she also soon
caught the fever which caused her
pulmonary consumption problems to in-
crease. Mrs. Finney took to her bed,
never to recover.
Knowing the state of her health, Mrs.
Finney struggled with the thought of
leaving her husband and children. When
she overcame this inner trial, she
showed remarkable peace and acceptance
regarding her impending death. Three
weeks before she died, she called her
children to her bedside and gave them her
last advice. Mrs. Finney proclaimed her
duty with them was complete, and
she waited peacefully for her death. She
showed no signs of failing trust in
God, as she had experienced earlier in
her life, but only confident strength.
Mrs. Finney departed serenely on December
18, 1847, with her husband at her
bedside.53
Finney, quite understandably, did not
deal well with his wife's death. He
was left with four children to care for
by himself, a duty he was not accus-
tomed to handling alone. Finney struggled deeply to give up his wife to God.
It took him days before he recovered
from the numbness he felt from the
shock of his wife's death. Finney
explained his feelings: "For a few days af-
ter my wife died, my sorrows seemed to
increase upon me, until it seemed to
me that I should go deranged. I had no
refuge, and could get no relief only in
flying to God as my helper." At her
funeral, Finney appeared torn apart and
pathetic. He wept aloud in his sorrow
and explained that he felt as if a part of
him had been torn from his body. Of his
wife Finney wrote, "She showed
me in many ways how to live, and
now she has shown me how to die."54
52. Finney Memoirs, 468; Finney,
"Last Sickness," 3.
53. Finney, "Last Sickness,"
3.
54. Oberlin Evangelist, 6 June 1849, 90 Oberlin College Special Collections; Finney
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood 189
As the wife of the premier evangelist of
the day, Mrs. Finney fulfilled her
role faithfully and wholeheartedly. She
had prayed for the conversion of
Finney, the event which transformed his
life and made his life's mission a
ministry. She helped Finney in his
ministry by leading female prayer meet-
ings, distributing tracts and visiting
houses, keeping abreast of the state of re-
ligion where he had conducted revivals,
and partaking in reform activities
which were a necessary outgrowth of the
evangelicalism her husband
preached. But Mrs. Finney did much more
than assist her husband in his
ministerial labors. She was the backbone
of the family as she cared for the
children and took control of their
spiritual growth, thus freeing her husband
from concern with family worries so that
he could concentrate on his labors.
In addition, Mrs. Finney always made
herself available for her husband, ready
to travel with him, and she constantly
served as a trusted confidant.
The reforms Mrs. Finney participated in
reflected her own personal values
and not merely the desire to help her
husband's ministry. Mrs. Finney had
been exposed to reform and benevolent
organizations as a young girl in
Oneida County, and she recognized their
value in society. Finney's preaching
of reform work as a natural outgrowth of
evangelicalism was not difficult for
her to accept. The reforms Mrs. Finney
thrived in, maternal associations and
moral reform, helped her to fulfill her
role as a mother, a mission she took
very seriously. While her model as an
evangelical reformer expanded wom-
en's roles outside of the home, she did
not represent a radical reformer because
her work tended to professionalize
women's roles rather than drastically alter
society's conception of women.
Lydia Andrews Finney's life uniquely
illustrates the coalescence of two im-
portant forces in the first half of the
nineteenth century which had a tremen-
dous impact on the role of women:
evangelicalism and reform. As the wife
of the great evangelicalist, she was at
the helm of the Second Great
Awakening with her husband and provided
many women with a model for
spiritual development and reform
activity, which drew women out of the do-
mestic sphere and into new, active,
visible roles in society. Through work in
evangelicalism, women learned
organizational, political, and social skills
which some used to revolutionize the
role of women as at the Seneca Falls
Convention in 1848. While Mrs. Finney
was not alive to witness this event,
she probably would not have actively
participated herself because her work in
evangelicalism revolved around
professionalization of women's roles as op-
posed to changing them radically.
However, her life's work gave women a
model of ministerial and reform activity
from which to use for achievement of
their own goals.
Memoirs, 468; Finney, "Last Sickness," 3. Finney
subsequently married Elizabeth Ford
Atkinson (1799-1863) and Rebecca Allen
Rayl (1824-1907).
CATHERINE M. ROKICKY
Lydia Finney and Evangelical
Womanhood
In May of 1835, Lydia Andrews Finney
bade farewell to her husband as he
headed for his first look at Oberlin
College in Oberlin, Ohio. Mrs. Finney
and their three children would stay in
Cleveland with her parents until the
Reverend Charles Grandison Finney
settled himself as the professor of theol-
ogy in Oberlin.1 Separation
between the couple was far from a new experi-
ence because of the position of the
Reverend Finney as the head of Protestant
evangelicalism. Since their marriage in
1824, Lydia Finney supported her
husband in his ministry and took her
place at the heart of evangelicalism for
women by fulfilling her roles as the
wife of a very prominent minister and by
becoming a respected reformer in her own
right.
The world in which Lydia and Charles
lived centered on the great religious
revival that fired the hearts and minds
of thousands of Americans in the first
half of the nineteenth century, altering
the religious and political climate of
the young nation. In the social realm,
the Second Great Awakening heated
both men and women into storms of reform
activity. After undergoing a
soul-wrenching conversion experience,
the new evangelicals had to show their
thirst for salvation by participating in
reforms that endeavored to change the
sinful actions of their fellow men and
women. These reformers acted on the
philosophy of disinterested benevolence,
the idea that women and men should
not be concerned with the rewards they
could gain by doing good for others
but should act compassionately for the
greater glory of God. The reformers
became the trustees of other men's
souls, especially the souls of the sinners
whom they wanted to lead to salvation.2
Although reformers pervaded society,
women, such as Lydia Finney, par-
ticularly took an active role in
evangelicalism and reform. As reformers,
women found an acceptable avenue from
which to move out of the domestic
Catherine M. Rokicky is a Ph.D.
candidate in history at Kent State University. She would
like to thank Professor Frank L. Byre
for his invaluable criticisms of this paper.
1. Garth M. Rosell and Richard A.G.
Dupuis, eds., The Memoirs of Charles G. Finney: The
Complete Restored Text (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1989), 396 (hereafter Finney
Memoirs).
2. Alice Felt Tyler, Freedom's
Ferment: Phases of American Social History from the
Colonial Period to the Outbreak of
the Civil War (New York, 1944), 35;
Clifford S. Griffin,
Their Brothers' Keepers: Moral
Stewardship in the United States, 1800-1865 (New Brunswick,
N.J., 1960), xii, 6.