Beautiful life of Mrs. Elizabeth Krecker

Preface

This little volume — the biography of Mrs. Elizabeth Krecker, President of the Woman's Missionary Society of the United Evangelical Church, and General Organizer of Woman's Missionary Societies, presents itself to the members of our church and especially to the women of the Missionary Society, making no plea for itself — the beautiful story of a beautiful, saintly life, will, we are sure, commend it to all its readers.

The little book, the material of which has been gathered from many sources and woven into her life's story by the skillful hand of a loving and faithful daughter, will be warmly welcomed by not only the women of the church who were associated with her in the work of the Woman's Missionary ^Society, but many who knew her who are not members of the church will be glad to read the connected history of her influential and beautiful life.

It is not only a sweet spirited, consecrated Christian woman that is seen in these pages but a grand, capable, aggressive, successful worker and leader in the Lord's army as well. She was a pioneer missionary from our church to a foreign land, — to Japan. The name had a deep meaning to her, it was for Japan her efforts were put forth, her prayers offered, it was there a great sorrow came to her life. Japan's soil drank her widowed tears and received the precious body of her best beloved.

Returning from abroad at a critical time in her church's history, she took up with rare grace and unexpected resources, the leadership of the Woman's

6 Preface.

Missionary forces and organized and led them on to a most successful issue.

Not with an imperious but a gentle spirit, relying on the strong hand of her God, she so wrought that when her work was finished she had won the sincere and spontaneous tribute of a church's praise.

The following words written by one who knew her, will express the estimate: — To the missionary cause Mrs. Krecker gave the best she had to offer — her time, the benefit of her experience and much of her means — all with a cheerful heart. She was never happier than when solving problems for the cause she loved so well — how to reach the uninterested and how to help the willing ones to a better knowledge of the work.

Advancd in thought, she perceived a mission could be planted in China— -which was done.

We have had the benefit of the wisdom and the tenderest thoughts of Mrs. Krecker. Upon us rests the rseponsibility of carrying on the work. It remains for each to do her best, and only her best.

To two of the members of the Executive Committee of the Worhan's Missionary Society, we are largely indebted for the publication of this book, they having entire charge of the manuscript after it left the hands of the writer.

Mrs. Krecker's Last Letters to the Woman's Board of

Missions, 166

The Woman's Missionary Society at Camp-Meetings, .... 168

Chapter I. A Soul Beautiful

'A sweet, attractive kind of grace, a full assurance "Your face is a benediction to me." "Every one here speaks of her beautiful face." "It would seem that these lines:

giv'n by looks 'Continual comfort in a face, the lineaments of Gospel books/

must have been suggested by a face very like unto hers."

"If ever I knew a woman whose face clearly mirrored the beautiful soul that dwelt within — that face was your mother's."

"Hers was a rarely beautiful soul."

"She was my idea of Solomon's model woman in the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs.

"She was my ideal woman."

"I think I gave her a sort of worship from afar."

With glowing, golden words such as these which are culled fairly at haphazard from many others as handsome and as fervent, all seemed to enter into the rare presence of Mrs. Krecker, delighting from the first moment in the lovely person and mien whose comeliness of flesh and feature were illumined and transfigured by the inawrdly fair, and whose grace and winsomeness seemed under the spell of some spiritual enchantment, instantly ushering the io Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker.

spectator into the chambers of a fine spirit whereof the exterior was but the alluring reflection.

"Your face is a benediction to me," Dr. Hudson Taylor, the celebrated missionary, said, as he presented himself without ceremonious introduction to the unusually beautiful and charming little woman near him whose sweet dignity was the sweeter for its suggestion of shyness and whose affability lost no cordiality for its frank reticence.

Characteristically coy was Mrs. Krecker's manner as she repeated this distinguished tribute with native and pretty simplicity to her daughter. "Yes, compliments are something I get plenty of," she said. During another cozy chat with the same daughter on the same topic she observed, "I think it is because I study how to please."

Studying how to please and succeeding in pleasing as Mrs. Krecker studied and succeeded is a sweet art which needs gentle abandon of self in others and a heart quite consecrated to its task of growing in grace; of pleasing man by being pleasing to God. "I think," says a precious friend, "that the prevailing sentiment in all Mrs. Krecker's letters was the desire to know God's will so that she might learn to do it."

It was this longing to render her soul as a sweet sacrifice unto the Lord and to have it wholly pleasing to Him that glorified all her sweet and lovely words and deeds and ways. For sweet and lovely they ail were with a gentleness and amiability, all pervasive and quite perfect, characterizing every expression of her face and each word and movemnt.

A Soul Beautiful n

To these as elements of her winsome personality, must bee added her singularly felicitous speech which illustrated Solomon's apples of gold in pictures of silver, ever fitly chosen to express the heart's sincerity and the faithful mental judgment while even under very critical circumstances, offering to the listener's ear nothing that would create disharmony. This was perhaps the easier for her because, while alert to see and enojy and speak of the merits of others and vividly to appreciate every kindness and favor, her mind instinctively blinded itself to shortcomings and slights and injuries; or, if these could not be veiled, regarded them with an untainted forgiveness which cherished no resentment to those who wittingly or unwittingly wounded, and could still admire their commendable traits.

A bright and beloved niece relates, "One thing that made a vivid and lasting impression on my mind while a young lady, occurred while Aunt Elizabeth was paying us a visit. I came into our home from teaching public school, and being thoroughly disgusted with a certain individual, I said to Aunt Elizabeth, 'Oh, he's "no good." ' Then Aunt Elizabeth came close to me and said so gently, 'Now, my dear Myra, never say of any one that they are "no good," for there is some good, some spark of the divine in every being, though it may not yet have been discovered. It is our duty and privilege to seek for the good in people and do what we can to aid them in developing the good. We should follow Frances Willard's advice: "Let us tell all the good things we may, and think as little evil as we can, that we may have little to tell but good, and then let us tell it out and keep on telling it." Will you try, my dear? She did that so sweetly I never shall forget it. and what's more, I tried as never before to seek for the good in people's lives and was so much happier for it."

Perhaps only those who knew her intimately can apprehend the solicitude with which this sweet and gentle lady, who studied how to please God and man, shielded others from gossip and prevented scandal from going any further through her instrumentality. There were times when those near and dear to her had to go hundreds of miles to hear what she would not repeat of near-by happenings.

With this happy insight for the bright and beautiful in character came a twin perception of the good in events, a rosy and tranquil optimism born of faith that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord. Or, if worries gnawed at her heart they were effectually screened by the happy light kept always aglow on her face. So that few indeed penetrated to the troubled spirit within.

But illuminating all her charming virtues like an aureole round her soul was the divine light of her spirituality. Her heart revelled in high meditations and found sweetest refreshment in prayer. "I do not know of an address made by her at any time in which she did not emphasize the importance of prayer, and all through her public work she evidenced her own complete and perfect submission to the Father's will. After she was no longer able to engage actively in the Woman's Missionary So-

A Soul Beautiful. 13

ciety work, her prayer went up continually for the success of this undertaking so dear to her heart and in which she was such an important factor. At one time she wrote, 'Daily in the morning hour among- those upon whom I ask God's blessing are our Woman's Missionary Society workers.' "

Her favorite religious readings pertained to the "Higher Christian Life. — such as Andrew Murray's, F.B.Meyers, Upham's, Mrs. Phcebe Palmer's, Anna Shipton's, Frances Havergal's, and Dr. Boardman's, particularly Upham's and Murray's.

Intellectually she was gifted with a wide-awake, eager mentality which thirsted for knowledge, delighted in intellectual problems and feasted on the solidest sort of reading. Intricate mathematical problems she enjoyed working out quite alone, and while in Japan ambitiously carried her studies beyond the Japanese into an ardent quest of the curious and tantalizing Chinese characters. When Mr. W. J. White published a book on the hieroglyphics of the Celestial Empire, he presented her with a copy.

Lester F. Ward's "Pure Sociology," which many a college bred woman finds dry and deep, she relished with zest, particularly his analysis of the "instinct for workmanship," the history of the development of man's capacity for labor and the story of woman's economic descent and ascent. On reading Charlotte Perkins Oilman's "Woman and Economics," she wrote home: "It is very interesting and suggestive. I want every one of you people at home to read it. If I knew vou wouldn't buv it, I would buy it and send it home." This breadth of mental grasp impelled her to appreciate truth wherever found and to enjoy all writers and speakers albeit of widely variant views, from whom she could receive light, thus ever enlarging her horizon.

This expanding magnitude of view is best known to those who knew her best, to those to whom she gave of herself the most freely, and, as is somewhat notable, it was reinforced with her years, so that there seemed to be no effort for the woman in her fifties to cast aside traditional ideas long entertained when sound reason proved them untenable. "New" and "modern" held no alarms for her mind so long as they expressed a nearer approach to the live fact. Her son, Mr. Preston Stewart Krecker, of New York City, alludes to her "wide range of sympathies especially with woman's progress. You know how much broader she was than any one church, how no sectarian narrowness restricted her view of life and society. Her own mission work with which she was immediately connected interested her most of course, but all mission work and all church work interested her. But she was much broader than this. All work aiming at the uplifting of woman, and all looking to betterment of humanity did as well."

Human advancement in its finest and loftiest sense was verily Mrs. Krecker's watchword and in all its phases found her its champion. In woman's progress she was with the latest viewpoint, looking forward to a world which neither man nor woman dominated, but where both lived and worked togeth-

A Soul Beautiful 15

er in harmony as genuine companions. A topic of practical interest was personal health and hygiene where she again was with the van guard of thought, and appreciated and practiced recent theories on food, dress and other conditions of daily bodily existence. All that interests advanced human beings interested Mrs. Krecker, and it was with the broadest, the most tolerant and the most far-sighted that she linked her sympathies. In nothing was she narrow.

Perhaps even more characteristic than Mrs. Krecker' s lavish breadth of mind was her mental balance, the sturdy common sense, the judgment sound and non-commital, the vivid sense of the logical, the acute foresightedness, the fineness in dealing with problems and people, the robust propensity to avoid extremes and pursue the golden mean of the middle path, which distinguished all her daily walk and conversation. While teachable, openminded, generous, impressible, pliant, in thought and conduct, Mrs. Krecker was usually mistress of a matter.

"With all her excellencies it is to be borne in mind that she possessed a great deal of diffidence, and she did not seem more than half aware of her

gifts-"

As a woman pure and simple, Mrs. Krecker loved all that the normal woman loves, in home and society. She enjoyed people as well as her solitude and all the good things of life and was apt in adapting herself to all sorts of conditions or persons and conditions, lending herself to the requirements of the moment. She was fond of all delicate personal belongings, $nd sometimes when seeing a handsome toilette would remark that "that was the sort of clothes she had always thought she would like to wear." Tasteful simplicity and immaculate neatness distinguished her attire, and, as an old-time friend observed to a daughter, after commenting pleasantly on a new frock of Mrs. Krecker's, "But then your mother always looks nice." Mrs. Krecker was dainty and painstaking and neat to an extreme degree of nicetv in all the details of housekeeping, darned stockings as they are rarely seen darned, and sewed with such trim care that in the days when she gave more time to housewifely accomplishments, her friends often begged her to help them with some particularly fastidious piece of handiwork.

Finally, she was a very careful cook. Her daughter, Marguerite, Mrs. Ralph Waterman Vincent, of East Orange, New Jersey, relates that her motherin-law "frequently speaks of her (Mrs. Krecker's) success in preserving fruit in its various forms. A

Mrs. one summer got her recipe for canning

plums, they were so well put up; and Mrs.

is considered very excellent in such matters."

"As a wife," continues Mrs. Vincent, "she was deeply interested in all that concerned her husband, and always thought first what was most beneficial for the larger development of his character, cheerfully sacrificing everything for that end." To this it may be supplemented that while depending on him with a reliance that was sweet and dear to her,

A Soul Beautiful lj

she was his own wise counsellor, whose judgments he habitually consulted on matters large and small.

IMrs. Jacob Hartzler, who was Mrs. Krecker's closest friend in Japan, and held ever in loving regard, termed her "A model wife and a fond mother. She always made home happy. She was wise as well as good, and very helpful to her excellent husband in his work for God. She never lost signt of the spiritual and eternal welfare of her children. The death of her husband was a deep bereavement, but her fortitude springing from God, made her strong, and enabled her to bear up nobly under the most trying circumstances, and to accomplish much for the Master. On the day of her precious husband's departure for his heavenly home, one of the children said, 'What a precious legacy our father left us !' What these dear children then said of their sainted father they can now say of their sainted mother also. What a debt of gratitude they owe their sainted parents !"

)It would be remote from any desire of Mrs. Krecker's to have her portrait painted as ideal. But rather than look for any blemishes in a soul so nearly faultless, it may not be amiss to recall her own comments on a photograph. After alluding to its imperfection she concluded with, "But why speak of the defects ? you can see them for yourself/' Human Mrs. Krecker was, yet withal so permeated with the divine that to see her seemed always "to praise her," and "to know her was to love her."

Chapter II "uttus Uzzik/'

It was among Pennsylvania's gardens of fair and fertile field and happy valley, on the first day of August, Eighteen Hundred and Forty-four, that Elizabeth Landis Oberholtzer was born, a fit flower for the fair gardens in which she blossomed, "a true picture from Nature/' as her school-master said, "of innocence, purity, beauty and loveliness."

There still rests on the brow of a low hill off the main road of the original Terre Hill, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a rambling old house with a famous big cherry tree near by and apple orchards sloping off to the fields. It stood on one of eight goodly farms stretching out fraternally side by side, the estates of eight brothers, gifts of their father, Isaac Martin Oberholtzer, whose Huguenot ancestor had come with his brother from the Alsatian Mountains, Switzerland, early in the eighteenth century to escape the persecution that burned their near kinfolk at the stake at Zurich.

In the village round which these and other farms clustered, an elderly school-master was 'Squire, — Elizabeth Oberholtzer's maternal grandfather, 'Squire Landis, widely known for his gentle character, his delicately chiseled face, his intelligent mind and his liberal views. All these admirable qualities he had transmitted to his lovely daughter, Mary,

BIRTHPLACE OF MRS. KRECKER.

wife of Isaac Oberholtzer, "a beautiful woman or fine cut features and splendid form, while her genial nature and amiable disposition endeared her to all with whom she became associated. ,, She is still remembered for her pretty white dresses, which were an exceptional daintiness for the wife of a farmer, and for her clever horsewomanship, an unusual accomplishment in the simple village. "She was created in too fine a mould to endure all the labors, trials and care of this life, and died at an early age, leaving eight little children. Elizabeth was three years old and perhaps something of a pet with her father. How he set her on his knee beside the stov.e to teach her the letters wrought in iron, and how at the age of three, through his tutelage, she had learned to spell out the texts in his Bible, she long after recalled. She remembered, too, that he loved to gather the whole famliy to see anything special about the farm or home which he had accomplished, and, that as a lay minister he was much in demand in the vicinity, particularly at funeral ceremonies where exceptionally able discourses were wanted to appeal to those who might otherwise never hear a sermon.

This little pet and her younger sister, Emmeline, wife of Dr. B. H. Miller, of Mohns Store, Pennsylvania, were named by "Old Mother Kinzer," of Terre Hill, "after some great personages/' as she relates, adding in pleased reminiscence of her proteges, that "Elizabeth and Emmeline were the most beautiful girls in that section and were known as the belles of the village/'

But long ere celebrity as a belle was hers, Elizabeth had become famous in her quiet little farm circle as being always "very helpful and kind even when but a mere child." At one time Mrs. Miller tells that "After mother's death Elizabeth took the broom and wanted to sweep when the house-keeper sent her away saying, 'You can not sweep.' Elizabeth felt very much disappointed, for she felt she should have been given a trial; she was eager to learn how to do things well. She was very fond of visiting Aunt Betsy Watts; Cousin Elizabeth Watts would invite some little girls, cousins and others, and teach them to sew; have a nice little party to make rugs or some fancy work or to sew carpet-rags, and Elizabeth was so delighted with what she learned and the kindness shown to her, that she never forgot it. I think Mr. Grove was her first school-teacher ; he used to carry Lizzie to school when she was only four years of age, and made quite a pet of his little school-girl, w T ho was a bright pupil. She always enjoyed going to Sunday-school and service and wished to join the church at eight years of age, while she taught a class in Sabbath-school while very young. In those days we did not mind winter's snow and slush, nor summer's heat and rains, and as young girls we never missed a service unless we had to remain at home with the smaller children. What a regular attendant at church our father was !"

Long years after when "Little Lizzie" re-visited the fond scenes of her childhood, she observed : "It seems to me the greatest blessing with which God in His infinite goodness has favored me is pious parents, who early inculcated the doctrine of the religion of Jesus Christ into the minds and hearts of their children. All other blessings under the guidance of my heavenly Father center around this greatest of all. It is because I was born of pious parents, who early taught me to lisp the name of Jesus that I cannot remember when that sweet sound first reached my ear. And it is because my godly parents took me to Sabbath-school in my very infancy that I cannot remember when I first went to the Fairville Sunday-school, this Sunday-school which I consider the second greatest blessing with which, through the mercy of God, I have been blessed.

"It is here, through one of my answers in the question-book, that I learned the important truth that without faith it is impossible to please God. And I not only learned that truth, but in connection with the precious truth that through faith in Jesus we have eternal life, it was indelibly impressed upon my mind and heart. And to-day I thank God for the faith I have in him ; for I believe he will cause all things to work together for good to those who love the Lord. And that sustaining promise 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee' is inexpressibly precious to me, because I believe it. Another verse which was deeply engraved upon my mind and heart in this Sunday-school is 'God is the rewarder of all who diligently seek him/

"It was longer, and consequently harder to com mit to memory than some others. But while many other short ones have been forgotten, this one was firmly fixed in my memory. And it caused me to look to God for my reward, and an inexpressibly great blessing has this proved to me. Had I gone forth in the path which was plainly marked out for me, in the expectation of receiving my reward from men, how sad would have been the disappointments. He gives unmistakable evidence that he is pleased with their consecration to him and with the willing, though feeble efforts with which they may be able to win souls for his kingdom.

"The first that I can remember about this Sunday-school is when I was a member of Hannah Snader's German class, on the left side of the platform, in the basement of the old church. As that was the only available opportunity I have ever had of studying German, it is with gratitude that I remember that class and Hannah's labor of love in the Sunday-school. After a time Maria Pliem was appointed our teacher. Her kindness, her pleasant manner and the interest manifested in her class will always be remembered with pleasure and profit.

"It was during the time that she taught this class, that there was some rivalry between our class and a class of which the Rev. Amos Stirk was a member. If I remember correctly, the Rev. William Chime was also a member of that class. There were prizes offered to those who had answered the most questions within a given time. Sometimes a member of their class would get the highest prize and again one of our class would get it. I still have a few books thus obtained, Hannah Moore and Leigh o

Richmond being the authors of the books. One is 'The Annals of the Poor/ and the other 'The Dairyman's Daughter.' It was through the reading of these books that I was first inspired to do good as well as to be good. It was through the influence of these books that I first received a desire to live for Jesus, to devote my life to his service and to win souls for his kingdom."

Of these same early days, Mrs. Krecker's brother, William, of Sioux City, Iowa, says: "From her youth up she was a very thoughtful girl ; the whole atmosphere of her parental home was deeply religious and severely unworldly; there was a strain of asceticism in the family, which while it did not destroy the native warmth of her nature, yet exerted a marked influence upon her character, and served to color some of her theological views ; it is not surprising that this impressible girl gave her heart to Jesus at an early age and united with the church, encouraged by a remark of the pastor, who said that they could 'use small stones as well as large ones in the walls of the building.' A knowledge of her talents and gifts, both of head and heart, suggests at once that she was destined to a career of more than usual force ; with a mind endowed as was Tiers, and a thirst for knowledge as she had, a girl will educate herself.

A cousin of Mrs. Krecker's, Mrs. Sue L. Hain, remembers what a bright scholar and exceedingly pleasant girl she was even at the age of six years.

Anna Kinzer Mcllvaine, of Philadelphia, a daughter of the Mrs. Kinzer who gave Elizabeth her handsome name, relates : "I found in this dear little girl, who was older than her years in sweet wisdom above the ordinary, a companion even in her childhood which made up in a measure the loss of her sister to me. My brother was her teacher for several years, and one whom he took the most profound interest in, as she was a very bright scholar, and an exemplary Christian/'

This brother, W. H. H. Kinzer, of Lancaster, school-mate and teacher and life-long friend of Mrs. Krecker, has kept green the memory of those long ago days of one of his "best friends and one of the best women that ever lived."

"The families of Oberholtzers and Kinzers," he recalls, "lived on adjoining farms and were always on the most friendly terms. Their children grew up together, attended the same school, — shared in each other's joys and sorrows and thus lived in harmony and sympathy for three generations. Now they are all gone and these once happy homes are occupied by strangers, and the old families are resting in the cemeteries or living many miles away from the homes of their childhood.

"Little Lizzie, as we always called her, was left, with her sisters, without a mother at an early age, just at the time when the loving care of a mother was most needed; however she had the good influence of a Christian father, who was an exemplary man in his home, a father in the church, an intense worker and a close student of the Bible, a genial companion and a good friend. By following up the line of duty which meant much hard work it greatly benefitted her physically, and she grew up in the bloom of health and learned the lessons of economy and industry which aided her in her success in later years.

"I knew her when a little child and can remember as a school-mate, when for the first day she came to school. From her home on the hillside, near the school, she trudged along with her sister Annie to school.

"Annie Oberholtzer was a loving companion of my sister Annie, now Mrs. Mcllvaine. They were of the same age and sat on the same seat together while at school. It was the best seat in the rear of the room and the highest one, where the biggest girls always sat.

"These two big girls perched her on the high bench right between them, with her little feet dangling down half-way to the floor — a timid, smiling, bashful little girl of six years, with dimples and blushes sparkling on her rosy cheeks, for her cheeks w r ere always red as a rose.

"After the first day at school Lizzie came pretty regularly in fair w 7 eather, and Annie Kinzer taught her to read before she was seven years old. She was considered too small for the dignified teacher of the school to bother with and waste his time. She however soon developed unusual precocity and remarkable brightness for her age. By a certain law of inheritance this child was a facsimile of her mother, and she inherited her noble virtues and Christian graces as well as her pleasant manners, cheerful disposition and physical beauty, together with her father's intellectual faculties and earnest devotion to the work of the Master, to which he untiringly devoted his whole life.

"Besides this, she was observant and discerning, ambitious and energetic, full of mirth and hope.