Loretta Cody
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Jane Croly
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PRESS
The Jersey Journal · Fnday, May 28,1999
Women’s Rights leader preached in Jersey City
By Loretta Cody
Special to the Jersey Journal
Ivy Place in Jersey City has a place in women’s history.
From 1877 to 1884 there were two Universalist Societies operating there, across the street from each other. The church at the corner of Ivy and Summit Avenue, listed as the Orient Church of God, and Library Hall, now National Carpeting and Linoleum Co., were the First and Second Universalists Churches, respectively.
An usher stood on the street directing worshipers to Library Hall to hear the lady preacher. The cause celebre was the Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford — a pioneer in women’s rights and the first New England woman ordained to the ministry. She was installed as the pastor of the First Universalist Church, the Church of the Good Shepherd, in 1874.
Hanaford’s record as a speaker was unchallenged. But her gender and her allegiance to the rights of women were definitely challenged.
With only months remaining in her three-year contract, members of the church held a meeting where a motion was read "that the trustees of this church be empowered to employ a male pastor."
But those willing to be served by such a respected woman formed a second church. The only appropriate place large enough to hold their services was the City Common Council Chamber in Library Hall, then the seat of state government.
The building was erected in 1866 by the Bergen Library Association at the corner of Grand Street and Ivy Place. It served as the Universalist Church in 1871 and 1872 before the purchase of the church on the top of Ivy Place.
Hanaford assisted at the ordination of her son during her 10 years in Jersey City, becoming the first woman to do so. She is the first woman to perform the marriage of her daughter, which she did in her home on Grand Street. From Jersey City she published a biographical dictionary of 967 notable American women.
The true record of Hanaford was not told in Van Winkle’s "History of the Municipalities of Hudson County" when he concluded that "the movement to establish a second society has after a struggle of six years proven to be a failure." Her years of continuous service in Library Hall were in contrast to the rapid turnover of male pastors at the First Universalist church across the street. It is also not true that she left because of poor health. Just prior to moving to a pastorate in New Haven in 1884, she addressed the state Assembly on behalf of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association. "New Jersey as Leader" was her topic, believing that since Jersey had originally given women voting rights in 1776, the state should again be the first to grant women the right to vote.
She wrote of her 20 years in the pulpit in an 1890 article in the Woman’s Journal: "If I were to write the full history of that 10 year’s pastorate (with graphic descriptions of what some men said and did to hinder woman’s work, and how angry some men were because I was a friend to woman suffrage. and would not renounce Sorosis, which, being a woman’s club, they felt must be an unfit place for a pastor); if I were to put in print some of letters then received signed and unsigned: if I were to tell what was said and done by men who thought themselves doing God service by blocking a woman’s way — I should put before the public a book which would cause both laughter and tears. Perhaps to cast the mantle of oblivion over them would be the work of charity. Time heals many wounds, and I have lived to stand in the same pulpit again and preach the state sermon, and after all that opposition to represent the state in our National Universalist Convention."
Unlike Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whose graveside service she performed, Hanaford, one of the original pioneers of women’s rights, lived to see the constitutional amendment in 1920 that gave women the full right to vote.
Ocean County Observer · Tuesday, March 24, 1996
Famed Female Journalist buried in Lakewood
By Loretta Cody
Correspondent
Women’s history is composed of the life stories of interesting women—stories that take us down many paths.
The story of the life of Jane Cunningham Croly during the late 1800s-early 1900s led me to Lakewood, where Croly is buried.
Under the pseudonym "Jennie June," Croly wrote for the New York Times. The first woman to serve as a regular correspondent for the out-of-town papers, her columns appeared in several newspapers and journals around the country.
During her 40-year career in journalism, women read her columns for advice on social issues, fashion and art.
But Croly did more than that. She also was the founder of the Federation of Women’s Clubs—an event that in a way, came from her news career.
With her husband, David Goodman Croly, managing editor of The World, Croly traveled in the company of the leading journalists of New York City.
In 1868, the New York City Press Club hosted a reception for author Charles Dickens, who was concluding his reading tour in the United States. Jennie June, a member of the club like her husband, applied for a ticket to the affair.
Along with many other female journalists, she was refused.
Public receptions were male-only affairs and the liberal Press Club was not willing to change policy. When the women challenged the club’s decision, the club’s officers offered them a seat—behind a curtain.
It was this incident that convinced Croly of the need to organize women in order to empower them. She soon formed Sorosis, a club by and for women. Out of this club grew the Federation of Women’s Clubs.
Out of her genius for empowering others, the Federation was born at the first Woman’s Congress in 1899. Croly refused the presidency.
Croly taught journalism at Rutger's Woman's College 1892. In 1898, she published her ninth book, "The History of the Woman’s Club Movement." Of that movement, she wrote:
"When the history of the 19th century comes to be written, women will appear as organizers and leaders of great organized movements among their own sex for the first time in the history of the world."
Her next project was founding the Women’s Press Club, where she remained as president until her death in 1901.
The Crolys became acquainted with Ocean County after the area became a health resort for city dwellers and also, attracted authors and publishers for the "Lenten Season."
David Goodman Croly was suffering from Bright’s disease, a fatal kidney ailment in those days; by 1887, the couple was visiting Ocean County.
In 1889, Croly’s husband died and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Lakewood.
Croly died in 1901, and was buried next to her husband. Her tombstone marks her only as the wife of David Goodman Croly.
The New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs is responsible for the care of Croly’s grave. In 1989, the GFWC Junior Past Presidents’ Club added a foot marker identifying her as a "pioneer newspaper woman and founder of women’s clubs."
Loretta Cody, a retired medical missionary who now resides in Brick Township, is a historian for the Alliance for Women in History/Ocean County, and is currently researching the life of the first woman ordained as a minister in New England.
Charles Smith, trustee of Evergreen Cemetery, Lcike wood, provided Cody with some information for this article.
© 1999 Loretta Cody
All Rights Reserved