Woman of the Century/Katherine Van Allen Grinnell

GRINNELL, Mrs. Katherine Van Allen, (Adasha) religious worker, born in Pillar Point, Jefferson county, N. Y., 20th April, 1839. Her maiden name was Katherine Van Allen, and her father was the owner of a fine estate near Sackett's Harbor. About the time of her birth a great religious revival swept over the country. Her parents came under its influence and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their home thereafter was the home of the Methodist preacher and a center of active work for building up the interests of the town. At the age of fourteen years she became a member of the church. At fifteen she was sent to Falley Seminary. Her preceptress was Miss Rachel C. Newman, and the young student owed much to the influence of that noble woman. In 1864 she became the wife of Graham G. Grinnell, a deacon in the Presbyterian Church in Adams, N. Y., and united with that church, frankly asserting her inability to accept its doctrines as she understood them, engaging to acquaint herself with them and to come into harmony with them if possible. As the years passed, her spiritual life deepened and her sympathy with dogmatic teachings grew less. In 1871, just before the great fire, the family removed to Chicago, Ill. Soon after she took up seriously spiritualistic study and has written much KATHERINE VAN ALLEN GRINNELL. upon that subject. Whatever success she may have achieved has been the result of the sincerity and spirit of absolute self-renunciation with which she strove to find the truth of things. Mrs. Grinnell is now living in Mayfair, Cook county, Ill., devoting her time to the propagation of her exalted theories.