Queer Places:
Grove Hill Cemetery
Waltham, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA
Lorenza
Haynes (April 15, 1820 – June 6, 1899) was an American librarian, minister,
school founder, suffragist, and writer. Hayne began her early career as a
teacher, working at schools in Lonsdale, Rhode Island, as well
as Leicester and Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1854, she opened a private school
in Rochester, New York, and from 1856 through 1860, was the principal of a
young women's seminary there. Ill health forced a temporary retirement of four
years, after which she served six years as the first librarian of the Waltham,
Massachusetts Public Library.[1] During
this period, she became intimate with the Rev. Olympia
Brown and Mary Livermore. In
1872, after retiring from the library, she entered St.
Lawrence University, Canton,
New York, and before completing the course there, was called to the
pastorate of the Universalist Church in Hallowell,
Maine. She delivered her first sermon as pastor on July 26, 1874. While
occupying this place, she officiated as chaplain in the House
of Representatives and also in the Senate,
in Augusta, Maine;
this was the first instance of a woman acting in that capacity in that State.
She also served as chaplain of the Soldier's Home at Togus.[2] In
1876, she went to the Marlboro,
Massachusetts Church, and afterward, she held pastorates in Fairfield,
Maine, Skowhegan,
Maine, Rockport,
Massachusetts, and Pigeon
Cove, Massachusetts.[3] Haynes, Phebe
Ann Coffin Hanaford, Mary
H. Graves were the first Massachusetts women
to become ordained Christian ministers.
Lorenza Haynes was born in Sudbury,
Massachusetts, April 15, 1820.[4] She
was the youngest of nine children (one son, eight daughters), their parents
being Anna Carr and Sudbury,
Massachusetts-born Gideon Haynes.[5] Lorenza
was a direct descendant of Walter Haynes, who came from England with his
family in 1638.[6] The
next year, he bought from Cato, a Native
American, for the sum of five pounds, a tract of land, now the town of Sudbury,
Massachusetts. Haynes is of the seventh generation, all of whom, including
her father's family were born in Sudbury. The maternal side is descended from
the Scotch.[7]
From childhood, Haynes showed an unusual interest in books, and, raised in a
town which had a library and an annual course of lectures, she became a
constant reader and student. Haynes passed through the grades of the public
schools, and then attended the Waltham Academy of Louis Smith. She taught one
of the public schools in her native town for nearly two years, but her love
for studying was so strong that she went for a time to the academy in Leicester,
Massachusetts.[7]
After her time at the Leicester academy, she taught at a public school for
six years in the city of Lowell,
Massachusetts and there made the acquaintance of Margaret
Foley, a cameo
cutter. Thus began a friendship which continued for nearly thirty years
and ended only when Foley died, she having become an prominent sculptor in Rome.
Haynes afterwards held the position of lady principal at the Academy in Chester,
New Hampshire. She subsequently established a young ladies' seminary in Rochester,
New York. After four years, she was compelled to return to her home for
some rest.[7]
Spending many years as an invalid, she then accepted the position of
librarian at the Waltham
Public Library which Waltham was to establish in the second story of the
Waltham Bank Building,[8] Having
entire charge of the work of cataloging and organizing the library, she was
said to have performed an incredible amount of work, for which the salary was
hardly suitable.[9] After
six-and-a-half years of service, she resigned her office in order to enter the
Universalist Theological school of St.
Lawrence University, Canton,
New York. Frequently, while librarian, she worked as a lecturer. [7]
A year before leaving the library, she read and studied under the direction
of Rev. Olympia Brown,
who wished her at once to take charge of a parish which was open to her;
however, Haynes was not willing to take the work as she was less equipped
theologically than young men graduates. In her day, she was the oldest woman
who ever studied in Canton Theological School.[10]
Two months before her course of study was finished in Canton, she received a
call from the Universalist
Church in Hallowell,
Maine, to become its pastor when she left Canton. Though she had never
preached before the society, she accepted the call, and was ordained there on
February 10, 1875. She officiated as chaplain in the Maine House of
Representatives and also in that state's Senate, in Augusta, Maine. This was
the first instance of a woman acting in that capacity in that State. She was
chaplain for two terms in the National
Soldiers' Home near Augusta, the first woman who had filled that place,
and had an invitation for a third term, when she resigned her pastorate in
Hallowell for one in Marlborough,
Massachusetts.[11][12]
While preaching in the latter place, she was invited by Post 43, Grand
Army of the Republic, to make some remarks in the exercises of Memorial
Day, 1876. The following year, she was unanimously invited to deliver the
oration of the day. It was the first time a woman in Massachusetts had filled
that position. Haynes provided services over parishes in Fairfield,
Maine, Rockport,
Massachusetts, and Skowhegan,
Maine. She often found her labors exceedingly arduous, especially during
Maine winters, preaching sometimes in two or three places the same day. She
rode 10–12 miles (16–19 km) in an open sleigh, with the mercury below 0 °F, to
officiate at a funeral. She left her parish in Fairfield, in 1883, for a
European tour. She was from its organization a member and first vice-president
of the Woman's Ministerial Conference. [11]
Haynes worked in various reformatory societies. She was always a woman
suffragist. She often spoke upon platforms and before legislative
committees in the State Houses of Massachusetts and
Maine.[11] For
many years, she wrote for various periodicals.[10]
In 1889, she was obliged to leave her last pastorate, which was in
Skowhegan, due to overworked eyes. Having previously bought a home in Waltham,
close to the family homestead, where her only surviving sister resided, she
went to live there permanently in July, 1889.[11] Gradually
failing in health, she died June 6, 1899, in Waltham.[12] Her
niece, Inez Haynes
Irwin, was an American feminist author, journalist, and president of the
Authors Guild.[13]
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