No doubt this was rare if not singular, the fact that she had ditched her unbelieving husband before gathering (also very rare) may give us some insights. No one filled any reports to mission presidents at this time in this area, and I’ve been through all the journals and letters.

This is what I’ve written about women’s roles in the 1850s in the area. For this period I’m able to use Samuel Woolley’s journal which as very detailed.

Shortly after his arrival in Delaware, Samuel Woolley “went to a quaker [sic] meeting with Aunt Sarah, had a short discourse from a woman first, & then from a man, as they think it is as much the right of a woman to preach as a man.” Though Woolley indicates in this passage that he considered such peculiar—despite his own Quaker background—women frequently spoke in the local Mormon meetings. Woolley described the first meeting at Centerville as follows: “The most of the members of the Church met here in the capacity of a communion meeting, I spoke some time to them, Bro Forman make some very fine remarks, Sister McCullah prayed, Sister Margaret Carpenter spoke, Sister Sarah Mariah Mousley sang a hymn, so all done as St Paul said ‘if any have the spirit of exhortation, let them exhort, & if any have a Psalm (Hymn) let sing it.’” Women continued to speak in the meetings throughout Woolley’s stay. Yet Woolley seemed to draw a distinction between speaking and preaching. Women never spoke at the Sunday evening proselytizing meetings and Woolley instructed the Mormons in Centerville to “Give all a chance to speak, pray, or sing, as the spirit may dictate,” at their communion meetings, but “if unbelievers come in to hear” the males leaders were to preach to them. Thus while men acted in all official capacities in Mormon worship, women could play a charismatic role if so moved by the spirit.

For the LDS, I would recommend looking over material from the greats like ERS, Zina Diantha, Emmeline BW, and others. Whitney was characterized as having great power in glossolalia, which was a form of preaching then. Might be worth scanning glossolalia material.

Prof. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is the contemporary master of inference from womens’ diaries–I would recommend her oeuvre for orientation in the techniques.

I also am trying to do a better job of including female voices in my work. Takes a lot more energy though–the lazy approach is the male-dominated one.

You might also check on the work of Susanna Morrill or Rachel Cope, both young PhDs who have done excellent work on female religious experience in the period (Mormon and evangelical respectively).

I haven’t noticed an example of a woman in the U.S. doing it, or anybody at all doing it quite this early, and am very happy to read of this instance. I suspect it was not uncommon, but that we don’t know about it other than in diaries and letters because these were all unofficial missionaries, out warning their neighbors as the scriptures said, but not filing reports with a mission president.

Nice find!

I’m especially interested in the language used. “go out preaching soon” seems to imply traveling to me. Is that how you read it, Steve?

David, some Methodist women preached, yes, though most only as “exhorters” within a given class. Very few ever assumed any sort of status as a traveling preacher (though some did accompany their husbands on their circuits and would exhort at gatherings). Phoebe Palmer is probably the most famous Methodist female preacher in antebellum America. Female exhorters and preachers were a source of contention within the MEC, though. There also are some notable black female preachers in 19th century Methodism (i.e. Jarena Lee).

There were a few independent female preachers that I’m aware of. Nancy Towles comes to mind, for example (though I think she was affiliated with the Baptists).

As to your larger point, I’ve never seen anything about Mormon women preaching. How common was this in antebellum America at large? I imagine Quaker women preached. Did Methodists, Chris?