HANAFORD, Rev. Phebe Anne, Universalist minister and author, born in Nantucket, Mass.,
PHEBE ANNE HANAFORD.
6th May, 1829. Her father, George W. Coffin, was a merchant and ship-owner. Phebe was reared in the doctrines and discipline of the Society of Friends. She was educated in the schools of her
native town. From childhood she was ambitious to become a preacher. With advancing years her religious belief changed. She joined the Baptist Church first, and afterward became a member of the Universalist Church. In 1849 she became the wife of Joseph H. Hanaford, a teacher. Her domestic and literary pursuits for a time kept her ministerial ambitions in check. She taught for several years in Massachusetts schools. From 1866 to 1868 she edited the "Ladies' Repository" and the "Myrtle" In 1865, while visiting in Nantucket, she preached twice in the schoolhouse in Siasconset, at the request of her father. In 1866 she was invited to preach in South Canton, Mass., as a substitute for Rev. Olympia Brown. Miss Rrown urged her to enter the ministry, and in 1868 she was ordained in Hingham, Mass. Her long ministerial career has been uniformly successful She preached and lectured throughout New England and the Western and Middle States. She was the first woman to serve as chaplain in a State legislature, serving in the Connecticut House and Senate in 1870 and 1872. She has had pastoral charges in Hingham and Waltham, Mass., New Haven, Conn., and Jersey City, N. J. In 1887 she was pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit in New Haven, Conn. She was conspicuous in temperance work, serving as grand chaplain of the Good Templars. In 1867 she represented her State grand lodge in the right worthy lodge in Detroit, Mich. Her literary work includes poems, essays, addresses and stories. Her published books are: "Lucretia the Quakeress" (1853); "Leonette, or Truth Sought and Found" (1857); "The Best of Books, and its History" (1857); "Abraham Lincoln " (1865); " Frank Nelson, the Runaway Boy" (1865); "The Soldier's Daughter" (1866); "The Captive Boy of Tierra del Fuego" (1867); "Field, Gunboat, Hospital and Prison" (1867); "The Young Captain" (1868); "George Peabody" (1870); " From Shore to Shore and Other Poems " 1870); "Charles Dickens" (1870); " Women of the Century" (1877), and "Ordination Book" (1887). She is the mother of several children. One son is a clergyman. Her life has been full of hard, earnest, conscientious and exalting work.