Religion Archives - Page 5 of 40

Mercy Simms

Irish religious and social crusader

Nano Nagle

1700s Irish nun, educator, and founder of the Presentation Order

Nellie Peters Black

Georgia (U.S.) clubwoman

Phoebe Judson was the first non-Indian woman to settle in the Lynden, Washington area (in northern Whatcom County) and became known as the “Mother of Lynden” during the half century that she lived there.

Meribah Farmer

Quaker minister and philanthropist who helped found Cleveland’s original evangelical Quakers organization and the First Friends Church.

Born near Philadelphia, PA to Benjamin and Hannah (Webster) Butler, Meribah and her family moved to Salem, OH, in 1811. She married James Farmer on l Oct. l834, and they settled in Salineville, OH. In 1856, the Farmers became the first members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) to settle in Cleveland.

Meribah was accepted early in life as a Quaker minister. Always wearing her bonnet and unostentatious attire, Meribah adhered strictly to the dress and manners of the Quakers, and, in meetings for worship, ministered in the spirit with great strength and sweetness.

The Cleveland Friends meeting first began in 1871 in the Farmer’s home located at the corner of Superior Avenue and East 6th Street (former HOLLENDEN HOTEL site). It was here the idea for a First Friends Church was born. In 1874 a modest church was built on Cedar Avenue. Meribah was one of four resident ministers, and James Farmer was an Elder.

Meribah devoted herself to various charities, including the Cleveland Protestant Orphan Asylum, The Aid Society of the Civil War, The Homeopathic Hospital, The Retreat (a home for the mentally disabled), and always provided aid for the Freedmen and the Indians through the Board of the Society of Friends.

The Farmers had seven children, Elihu, Beulah, Ellen, Lydia, Laura, Elizabeth and James. Meribah is buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.

Bernard Ncube

South African nun and activist

Dr Maura Lynch

Irish missionary nun and surgeon active in Angola and Uganda

Olivia Robertson

20th century Irish writer, artist and co-founder of the Fellowship of Isis

Cordelia O’Neill

Cleveland, Ohio elementary school principal

Sara Varley McCarthy

Ohio reporter and social welfare volunteer who helped organize the Cleveland Diocesan Council of the National Councl of Catholic Women in 1923, received a papal medal for distinguished service by a layperson to the Catholic Church in 1936.