Woman of the Century/Elfreda Louise Newport

NEWPORT, Mrs. Elfreda Louise, Universalist minister, born in Muncie, Ind., 8th September, 1866. Her maiden name was Shaffer. Her father is a tradesman and mechanic. Her mother is esteemed as a singer and elocutionist of local reputation in the present home of the family, in Iola, Kans. Her paternal grandfather was a preacher in the German Evangelical Association. Elfreda Louise attended the public schools of Muncie and was graduated from the high school in 1883. She attended normal classes and obtained a certificate for teaching, but, desiring to become an artist, she entered a photograph gallery, as an apprentice, in the fall of 1883. A stronger purpose soon sup- planted that. From her early childhood she had been deeply intent upon becoming a preacher. Her favorite pastime had been to gather the chickens into her father's workshop and to preach to them, playing at church. In the winter of 1883 she had a deep religious experience. Encouraged by her pastor and aided by the Universalist Church, of ELFREDA LOUSE NEWPORT. which she was a member, she entered the divinity school of Lombard University, in Galesburg, Ill., in September, 1884. There she was graduated 20th June, 1888, with the degree of B. D. During two years of that course she aided herself financially by singing in a church quartette choir as contralto. In June, 1886, she preached her first sermon in Muncie, Ind. In June, 1887, she began to preach in Swan Creek, Ill., twice a month. In October, 1887, she engaged to preach also in Marseilles, 111., filling those appointments alternately until May, 1888. After her graduation she settled in Marseilles. There she was ordained to the ministry of the Universalist Church, 21st September, 1888, and there she remained as pastor for two years, receiving many new members, performing every church ordinance, and declining a call to a mission in Chicago and calls to important city charges. Resigning her place in Marseilles, Miss Shaffer became the wife of Nathan G. Newport, a merchant of Wauponsee, Ill., 15th October, 1890. She became the pastor of churches in both Wauponsee and Verona, and soon a new church was erected in the former place through her efforts. Mrs. Newport is a pleasing and impressive preacher. She is an energetic worker in all things that tend to the upbuilding of the church