ABSTRACT
The Unitarian Body, was, as might be expected, the first to adopt this innovation. The ReV". Celia Burleigh, now dead, was the first woman who received ordination; after her came the Rev. Mary Graves ordained in 1871, the Rev. Caroline A. Jones ordained in 1878, and settled at Brooklyn, Conneticut; and the Rev. Mary A. Safford ordained in 1880, who has been till lately pastor at Humboldt, Iowa. Of her work there, .a correspondent, G. S. Garfield, thus writes to Unity:-
Rev. Mary A. Safford, after a very successful and faithful pastorate of five years, preached her "good-bye sermon" to us last Sunday. It was the day of our annual flower service, and the church was blooming with flowers amid the handsomest foliage. The house was well packed at an early hour with eager listeners, all, however, wearing sorrowful faces at thought of parting with our dearly loved pastor. In this closing discourse Miss Safford reviewed briefly the progress of the society during her pastorate, alluded to its present strength and ability for future maintenance, also to the nucleus of which to make a strong society in the rapidly growing city of Sioux City, on the western border of our state, where she goes to labour in response to an enthusiastic call.
