THE FIRST ORDAINED WOMAN MINISTER

Antoinette Brown expressed interest in ministry at the age of 9. When she entered Oberlin in 1846 women were not allowed to walk with the opposite sex or speak in public. When she finished her studies in theology she was allowed to preach but was not given a diploma. While at school she became a life-long friend of Lucy Stone, another suffragist and abolitionist. Three years later, in 1853, she was ordained to serve a Congregational Church in NY state. In 1908 Oberlin conferred on her an honorary Doctor of Divinity. She and others helped to refute the idea that women had neither the intellect nor the disposition for learning.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/biography/antoinette-brown-blackwell

See this reference also: Friends and Sisters: Letters between Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown Blackwell, 1846-93 (Women in American History)Amazon