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Mary Werlein Mission Methodist Episcopal Church South (New Orleans, La.) records

 Collection
Identifier: LACUMC-Mary Werlein Mission MECS

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of administrative records for the Mary Werlein Mission Methodist Episcopal Church South (New Orleans, La.). A church register contains the following sections: pastors (1895-1921), marriages (1897-1914), baptisms (1896-1922), and members (1896-1923). Also included are quarterly conference meeting minutes for 1917.

Dates

  • 1895 - 1923

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Physical rights are retained by the Centenary College of Louisiana Archives and Special Collections. Copyright is retained in accordance with U.S. copyright laws.

Biographical / Historical

The Mary Werlein Mission Methodist Episcopal Church South (New Orleans, La.) traces its history to the Tchoupitoulas Mission Methodist Episcopal Church South (New Orleans, La.), which was established around 1893 in the Irish Channel neighborhood. In 1895, the New Orleans District Woman’s Parsonage and Home Missionary Society (WPHMS) assumed financial responsibility for the mission. Membership records imply Mary Werlein formally joined the congregation in 1907; around this time the name changed to the Mary Werlein Mission. The mission appears to have been discontinued around 1925. As noted by Ellen Blue in "St. Mark's and the Social Gospel: Methodist Women and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1895-1965" (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2011):

In addition to providing a place for street preaching and evangelism, the Werlein Mission carried out urban ministries under the direction of Lillie Meekins, a city missionary from Covington [Louisiana]. In residence at the mission, Meekins was surrounded by mills, factories, and the tenements where poorly paid laborers lived. She was determined to improve the lives of those around her. Mary Werlein, the mission’s primary fund-raiser and a leader within the WPHMS, spent her time working for the church, leading religious services in jails, and participating in activist women’s organizations, especially those concerned with providing safe housing for single women.

Extent

1 Volumes

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

Organized by subject, then chronologically.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Unidentified.

Title
Finding Aid to the Mary Werlein Mission Methodist Episcopal Church South (New Orleans, La.) records
Author
Olivia Brignac and Chris Brown
Date
2017
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Centenary College of Louisiana Archives and Special Collections Repository

Contact:
2911 Centenary Blvd.
Shreveport LA 71104 US
(318) 869-5462