Numbers in brackets below refer to references numbers in the Bibliography; letters in brackets are footnotes that contain explanations, references not included in the Bibliography and tangential information.

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Introduction

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Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the church, and the apostles and prophets are the foundation (Eph. 2:20).  But wherever we are, and whatever time period we live in, the men and women of faith who have gone before us in the place where we live, who have built Jesus’ church there by His Spirit, are not only worthy of our respect, but also I believe their stories of faith encourage us to greater acts of faith and obedience.  For us whom God has called to live in Idaho Falls, one whom God brought to this community in the early 1880’s is one of those people whose faith encourages us to greater love and good deeds.

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Rebecca Mitchell was a self-supporting Baptist missionary who came to Eagle Rock, when Eagle Rock needed a missionary.

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Rebecca Mitchell was a church planter in Eagle Rock, when Eagle Rock had no churches.[a]

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Rebecca Mitchell has also been called:

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an evangelist[89],

a church founder[177],

a dynamic lady preacher,[1] an ordained preacher,[181] a pioneer preacher[14],

an eloquent speaker,[89] a well-known lecturer[168],

           a philanthropist[167],

           and many other things…

               

During her 26 years in Eagle Rock and Idaho Falls, she lived out her missionary calling as all of the above plus being a Sunday school teacher, the first day-school teacher in Eagle Rock,[2] a local historian,[189] an author,[4,6,7] a candidate for presidential elector,[99,106,129] a W.C.T.U. State President,[10,54,67] the first woman chaplain of the State (or any state) Legislature,[14,64,75] the Idaho delegate to national W.C.T.U. conventions several years and the world convention one year,[2,34,77,171] a lobbyist of the state legislature[9,10,15] and even a special agent of the state[78, 79] to review the state’s system of paroling prisoners.

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Calling

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From her youth Rebecca Mitchell felt called by the Lord.  She had a desire to study theology,[16] but various circumstances forced that to be delayed until she was nearly 40.  Even when she did enroll in the Chicago Baptist Missionary Training School,[b] it was only for one winter (1881-2)[7, 17]  She seemed eager to get out to the field to do what God was calling her to do.

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Different sources have different slants on Rebecca Mitchell’s calling to Eagle Rock and Idaho.  Some, like Fritzen,[3] and Durkin,[29] seem to imply she stayed here because she either ran out or ran low of money at some point along the way, whether Eagle Rock or Ogden, on a trip that otherwise would have taken her farther west. 

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But in her own words:

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…in June, 1882, I turned my face toward the Great Unknown West, not knowing the whereabouts of my final destination, but was led by God, and so I found myself in Idaho, in the town of Eagle Rock, now Idaho Falls, coming as a self-supporting missionary of the Baptist Church.[7]

 

Rev. Dwight Spencer, Superintendent of Baptist Missions in the West, echoes the above:

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Leaving her home in Illinois, and directed by the Holy Spirit, she came to Eagle Rock, Idaho.[8]

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I think these statements reflect that Rebecca Mitchell realized Eagle Rock was exactly where God had led and called her. Whether she came to that conclusion in Illinois, in Ogden, when she got to Eagle Rock or at some other place and time is unclear.

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It is true that the prosperous mining town of Bellevue, Idaho had been recommended to her[3], and that when she arrived in Eagle Rock she was low on funds.[3,29].  Perhaps when she got to Ogden and learned the cost of stage tickets from there to different points in Idaho she made the decision to go to Eagle Rock rather than Bellevue.  This is what Reference 29 implies.  But the same source also states that Baptist leaders did not approve of her going out on the field as a missionary at all because of her status as a divorced woman.[c]  My sense from reading all sources is that she clearly had a calling from God, had both support and opposition to going on the field in the West from different leaders in her denomination, but being self-supporting,[d] she felt the freedom to give the greatest weight in both going on the field and where she went on the field to where she sensed the Lord was leading her, which was the unlikely and primitive settlement of Eagle Rock.  And once she got to Eagle Rock, if not before, she realized this was where God had called her and so she set her whole heart into doing the work He called her to do.

 

An 1884 newspaper article that reported on Rebecca Mitchell’s successful efforts to establish a church in Eagle Rock also stated, ”Eagle Rock is only one out of thirty thriving towns within an area 400 by 250 miles, in which there is a church of any denomination.”[30]  That statement may not have been completely true, but it reflects the thinking of the day that Idaho, which was a territory at the time and not yet a state, was indeed a mission field, and it is true that most if not all of the 30 towns mentioned did not have churches.

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Faith

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Rebecca Mitchell called her work “Providence Mission,” and often quoted her motto, “All things are possible to him that believeth.”[11] Her faith in action is seen immediately upon her arrival in Eagle Rock, as within five days she had visited every family in the community.[3]  After 16 months in Eagle Rock, remembering her motto she wrote, “I know that there are great possibilities here,”[11] and within another year and a half she had started a church, and not only raised the funds for a building but also completed construction of it.

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Her faith got her through innumerable obstacles to her work.  One of her early students reminisced in a letter to Rebecca’s daughter years after her mother’s death, “Nothing stopped her – she left a trail of schools and Baptist churches throughout Idaho.”[12] By faith she successfully lobbied the Idaho State Legislature to pass several bills, and then was elected chaplain.  Perhaps the clearest testimony to the maturity of her faith came in the last several years of her life.  She was often sick from tuberculosis and so weak that she was confined to her bed, and yet many people and groups came to her house seeking her counsel and prayers. One testimony of a reporter, about seven months before her death, was the following:

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Though confined to her room, and suffering much, Mrs. Mitchell does not lose her strong grip on all affairs relating to the welfare of her fellowmen.  She still prays and toils for the triumph of the right and the overthrow of evil, and she is not one who lives in vain.  Institutions and men which stand in the way of Rebecca Mitchell’s prayer and God will sooner or later come to grief.  They had better stand aside, for her God was the God of Moses and her faith is like that of Daniel.[155]

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Background

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             Rebecca Mitchell’s life before coming to Eagle Rock

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Several things stand out in Rebecca Mitchell’s life that were part of God’s plan forming her character and preparing her for her calling and service in His kingdom. 

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1. She had Christian parents, and was hence exposed at an early age to the gospel and teaching from the Word of God. “She had a devout nature from childhood, and had she met with encouragement would have studied theology.”[16][e]

2. She grew up where she also could see and appreciate God’s work in nature around her.[7]

3. She grew up on a farm, where there was always work to do.[15]

4. Her mother died when she was 14, and many of the responsibilities of her mother as a farm wife, including being a mother to several younger children in the family fell to her. “Losing her mother at age 14, she left school and became the care-taker of the home, where spinning, weaving, and all the routine duties incident to the farm life of the 1840’s left but little time for the few books she had at her command.”[15]

5. At age 19, she married John Rowan Mitchell,[17,196] a farmer who was the son of a preacher.[f]  She and John had two sons, but just four years after getting married, when her sons were ages 1 and 3, John died, leaving her a widow.  Because of the laws of the day regarding ownership and estates, at his death she lost everything she owned, excepting only her Bible and hymn book.[7]

6. She thus spent the next 8 years as a single mother, raising her two sons.[7]

7. “Most of her education was received after she became a widow, when she attended school with her children.”[17,27]

8. In 1865, she remarried, a brother of her first husband, and with him had two daughters.[17, 198]  However, this marriage lasted less than five years.

9. One of her daughters, who had been named after Rebecca’s mother, died at age 5.[17]

 

Thus Rebecca Brown Mitchell lost to death her mother when she 14, her first husband at age 23 after only 4 years of marriage, and a daughter at age 37 when her daughter was only 5 years old.  None of these tragedies seemed to diminish her faith or make her bitter.  But one of them – her husband’s death – and because she lost nearly all her possessions because of it, made her a strong advocate and campaigner for justice, the rights of the oppressed, and the rights of women in later years.

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Notes: 

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1. Based on U.S. census data,[190] for a time after her first husband died, she and her two sons lived with the family of one of her sisters, Emily, and her husband Levi Mitchell.[g]  When her sons were older, they moved to and worked a farm adjacent to Levi and Emily’s property.[192]

2. Some biographies report that Rebecca was widowed twice.  However her second husband did not die until 1907, thus “widowed” in this case meant “divorced.” Married to James Lewis Mitchell in 1865, the 1870[192] census[h] shows Rebecca living with her two sons and daughter; hence her marriage to James lasted at least 3 years (because of the date of birth of one of her daughters) but less than 5 years.

3. I have not verified exactly how many brothers and sisters Rebecca had.  Her FamilySearch profile[199] shows 5 sisters and 4 brothers, although the date of birth of one brother is after her mother’s death.  Combined 1840 and 1850 census data account for only 4 sisters and 3 brothers.  Perhaps one or more of her siblings died young.  I found only one report of any of her siblings visiting her in Idaho, that of her sister Mary visiting her in 1908, just two months before Rebecca’s death.[163]  This report notes that this was the first time the sisters had seen each other in over 12 years, implying that there had been at least one previous visit.

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           Eagle Rock in the 1880’s & 1890’s

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In her Glimpses of My Life, Rebecca Mitchell vividly portrays the bleakness of Eagle Rock when she arrived in June, 1882:

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Neither tree, nor grass, nor bird was to be seen on the streets, but sand, sand everywhere.  But when the sandstorms came, it was beyond description.[7]

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In 1879 the construction of the Utah Northern Railroad from Salt Lake to Butte gave a new impetus to the growth of our city, as it was made a division point and the machine and car shops were located here.  Previous to this time there were but five families with permanent residences in the town.[21]

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So when Rebecca Mitchell arrived in Eagle Rock, it was a railroad town, with a high percentage of the population single men who frequented the saloons.  The railroad company built 12 residences for officials of the shops, and 40 or 50 shacks for the workers.[22] The only sign of any government was the post office until the town incorporated in 1890 as a village, with the new name of Idaho Falls.[22]

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The 1880 U.S. census[194] shows a population of 250 people in the “Eagle Rock and Willow Creek Districts” of the county.  Willow Creek was a farming settlement; Eagle Rock had the railroad shops and businesses catering to the shop workers. The first census of Eagle Rock, taken in 1885, indicates a population of 1,500,[22] so in Rebecca Mitchell’s early years in town, there was extremely rapid growth.  But the boom became a bust in 1887, when the railroad shops and many of the shacks for the workers were moved to Pocatello. The population plunged back down to less than 250.[22][i]

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Before 1880, Eagle Rock had only one store and just a few houses.[5][j]  But by 1885, there were five general merchandise stores, two hotels, four restaurants, a dozen boarding houses, one drug store, two tailor shops, two newspapers, one brewery, one soda water manufacturer, one market, one harness shop, one book store, one music store, six saloons, two barber shops, two lumber yards, four lawyers, one doctor, and one church building.[j]

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A few years after Eagle lost the railroad shops and workers, canals were dug and land promoters were very active and successful advertising the agricultural potential of the town.  But disaster came again with the Panic of 1893, leading to a serious economic depression that lasted through 1897.  One account of the history of Idaho Falls records that, “When the panic of 1893 struck the town, it was dead until 1898…”[22]

Yet in Rebecca Mitchell’s own Historical Sketch of Eagle Rock[18, Sept 26, 1905 issue] neither the loss of the railroad shops nor the Panic of 1893 are mentioned.  She does describe what she calls a tragedy in the early 1870’s in which two belligerent cowboys came to Anderson’s store, started shooting when confronted, and ended up both being killed themselves.  The rest of her sketch of Eagle Rock is about Indians, mostly friendly, various residents who contributed to the town, early churches and schools. 

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Rebecca Mitchell, the Missionary

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Rebecca Mitchell came from Illinois to Eagle Rock and stayed.  While newspapers report her frequent trips to places near and far in Idaho, from Blackfoot to northern Idaho, from Market Lake to Boise, and occasional trips to Montana, Washington state or Utah, and her attendance as a delegate to national W.C.T.U. conventions in St. Louis, Buffalo, and Chicago,[2] and one trip to California[19] to visit her daughter, absent is any report of a trip back to Illinois.  She came to Eagle Rock and became a resident of Idaho.  She sought the good of the community; she got to know people and families; she learned and wrote about the history of Eagle Rock and southeastern Idaho.  The people of Eagle Rock became her family and her only home.  She saw the needs of Eagle Rock and Idaho and addressing those needs was her mission. And the greatest need I believe that she saw was for the people of Eagle Rock to know the Savior, become part of His church and live according to His commands.

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Support

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Sometimes anyone who is financially supported by others to do ministry is thought of as a missionary, and they or their organization spend a lot of effort raising funds.  That was not the case for Rebecca Mitchell.  She was self-supporting, and looking back on her life from all available sources, there is scarce information showing exactly how she supported herself.  In her Glimpses of My Life, she shares a couple examples of times when God provided just what she needed when she had no money left.  She believed that God would provide for her and for what he called her to do. 

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It’s likely that her principle source of income came through her teaching, but she reports that her primary purpose in teaching was to give her entrance into the families of Eagle Rock.  And while she did teach in Eagle Rock in her early years, once the railroad shops were moved out of Eagle Rock, her school closed.  After that she continued teaching in outlying settlements for a few years.  For a short time she was a “paid evangelist” for the W.C.T.U.[77]  For two sessions of the Idaho Legislature she was the chaplain,[64,92] and likely received a small salary for it.  Perhaps she received some gifts and honorariums for filling pulpits and giving lectures after her schools closed.        

 

Church Planter

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A missionary plants churches where there are none, and that is what Rebecca Mitchell did in Eagle Rock.  She herself wrote that when she arrived in Eagle Rock in 1882, she “knew of no church or church organization on this line of (rail)road from Ogden, Utah to Butte, Montana…”[7] Many sources repeat or rephrase or even expand on that statement.[k]   

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A few people in Eagle Rock had met in a home for worship in the fall of 1881 and eventually (in 1890) formed St. John’s Episcopal Church, although in the 1880’s their meetings were sporadic, and so low key that many people, like Rebecca Mitchell herself, were unaware of them. The same year that Rebecca Mitchell came to Eagle Rock, a Methodist pastor, Rev. Elder, came to Eagle Rock, but stayed only six months.[10]  The Methodist church in Eagle Rock was organized in the fall of 1883[l] and incorporated in 1886,[3] but when Rev. Hardman came to Idaho Falls in 1894 to pastor the church, he found only two members.[au]

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In the region, in 1881 plans to build a church open to all denominations in what was then called Salmon City, now known just as Salmon.[m]  Also regular services of the Methodist Episcopal Church were being held in Blackfoot in 1881,[n] and it’s possible that they had started work on a building.[o] A church building had been built in Bannack, Montana in 1877.[p] There may well have been other churches forming or meeting in the region, but none in Eagle Rock, and so that is what Rebecca Mitchell set out to do.  Planting a church in Eagle Rock, and making a church building available to other religious and community groups, was clearly Rebecca Mitchell’s first passion. 

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In her first week in Eagle Rock, Rebecca Mitchell visited every family in the community.[q]  Then on Sunday she started a Sunday school in her home, initially with 18 children attending, and Monday, a school, with 40 pupils.[5,25]   But both her Sunday school and day school were steps she had in mind for forming a church.[r]  And when the church did form, it met in her home until they were able to construct a church building.[13]

Insight into Rebecca’s early work as a missionary comes from a letter she wrote to the National Baptist (magazine) in December of 1883, which reads like a report of her work.[11]

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She writes that she has 52 in attendance in her Sunday school. 

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The interest in Sunday school is good; sowing is my work.  I am giving all of soul and body to it; for the result I am not responsible.  I hear the Savior saying, “Go tell;” as one of His little ones, I claim all of His promises as mine.  He has promised to be with me, and where He is, it is heaven. 

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Her activities included the following:

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Sabbath-school every Sabbath, 10 a.m.

Bible reading, for 10 months, 4 p.m.

Band of Hope,[s] 12 months, met most of the time once a week

Sewing school every Saturday, in connection of Band of Hope

Have held 28 prayer meetings

Day-school all the time, five weeks’ vacation in 16 months; have had up to this date 90 children and youths under my tuition, some for a short time only; four of them young men taking evening lessons

Have given out 3,000 religious and temperance papers, besides tracts, 82 picture books made from donated copies of Our Little Ones

I have been four miles out in the country, five times taught the regular Sabbath-school lessons, talked, sang and prayed with the children, 12 to 18 being present. 

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Her report then goes into detail about giving out clothing, mittens and shoes to needy families which were sent to her in barrels from Massachusettes, Michigan and Illinois, and Bibles, singing books, other books and papers which she received from many sources.  In a postscript she adds that she has received a total of $43.75 in donations from eight sources.[11]

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Marlys Whitman continues the story:[13]

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Her own little shanty home, bounded on both sides by saloons, served to keep her group together and growing, but she resolved to establish her church in better surroundings and on firmer foundations as soon as possible. She wrote innumerable letters to philanthropic minded friends and to religious magazines in the East for financial aid.  She worked tirelessly at the self-appointed task and was so successful that within two years she herself was given the honor of throwing the first shovel of dirt for the foundation of the new church.  The actual magnitude of the task to which she had set herself can be understood more clearly when one realizes that at the beginning of the actual building program, here was a church organization less than a month old with only eight members, (which included) a pastor and his wife. 

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Three people were baptized in the Snake River on the day that ground was broken for the church.[2] The building was completed in a mere three months, in November, 1884.[5,13]  “People from all denominations helped to establish this pioneer church, but in time withdrew to organize their own churches.”[5] About the time when the church was finished, Rebecca Mitchell had her furniture, still in Illinois, shipped to Eagle Rock and which included an organ that was put in the church building.[5][t]

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Rebecca Mitchell had help forming and building the Baptist Church in Eagle Rock, notably from Rev. M.T. Lamb, who along with his wife were charter members of the church, and Rev. Dwight Spencer, who was in charge of Baptist Missions in the West.[2,13]  When the Eagle Rock church was being formed Rev. Dwight resided in New York, but shortly thereafter he relocated to Salt Lake.  Earlier in 1884 he had written about Rebecca Mitchell’s ministry in the Baptist Home Mission Monthly magazine:[8]

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Two years ago a devoted sister, Mrs. Rebecca Mitchell, having read of the great destitution of the Rocky Mountain District, determined to “do what she could” to relieve it.  Leaving her home in Illinois, and directed by the Holy Spirit, she came to Eagle Rock, Idaho.  This is a town on the Utah and Northern Railroad, and the point where the repair shops and round-house are located.  It has a population varying from 600 to 800, with several outlying settlements.  It had neither church, Sunday school, nor day school.  Mrs. Mitchell decided to open a school, not only as a means of support, but also as a means of gaining access to the families.  The children came in – children both ignorant and depraved.  There were boys of 13 who had never heard of the Savior.  At the same time Mrs. Mitchell organized a Sunday school.  Thus for two years she toiled amid great privations, but never doubted; and now at last she has been permitted to see fruit gathered.  In August we organized a church of eleven members.  It was an eventful day for Eagle Rock.  Three willing candidates were led into the baptismal waters, and buried in the likeness of the Savior’s death.  In the evening, recognition services were held, the writer preaching the sermon; and the day closed with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  A church edifice, costing about $1,800, is nearly completed. 

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A little over $400 of the cost of the church building was raised in Eagle Rock, the rest outside.[17]  The church was located on the corner of Eastern Avenue and Ash Street; Rebecca Mitchell’s home was two blocks away on the corner of Elm Street and Waters Avenue.

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The Baptist church in Eagle Rock, which in 1890 became Idaho Falls, had a series of pastors in its early years.  Rebecca Mitchell at times filled the pulpit when the pastor was out of town or sick.[40,45,102,112,138] While the available records are a bit unclear, it appears she continued teaching Sunday school at the Baptist church throughout her years in Idaho Falls until her health failed.[u]  She had her Sunday school classes put on programs to raise funds for church remodeling in 1901.[107, 110]  She attended and spoke at state Sunday school conventions as late as 1902[113] and 1906.[142]  While there’s no hint that she thought of planting additional churches in Idaho Falls or anywhere else, there’s ample evidence that she led the effort to organize the Baptist church in Eagle Rock, raised the funds for their building, and supported the church through filling the pulpit when needed, teaching Sunday school and other ways throughout her life.

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            Teacher

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The death of Rebecca Mitchell’s mother, as well as her calling and mission, delayed her own education.  After attending school with her sons, she taught school in Illinois “for some time.”[17] When her daughter attended grade school, Mrs. Mitchell, now in her 40’s, attended high school.[17]  Then during the winter of 1881-2, she attended the Missionary Training School in Chicago.[17]  But in 1887, after several years of teaching in Eagle Rock and her own school had likely closed, at age 53, she enrolled in a program leading to obtaining a teaching certificate.[28][v]  

As mentioned above, Rebecca Mitchell’s day school, openly a private, Baptist school that met in her home, began with 40 pupils in June, 1882.[25,48]  In 1883 the total number of children between the ages of 5 and 21 within an 8-mile radius of Eagle Rock was 186;[25] that same year Mrs. Mitchell reported that she had taught a total of 90.[11]  Thus Rebecca Mitchell had taught nearly 50% of the children in and near Eagle Rock.

For comparison, the public school enrollment in Eagle Rock in the fall of 1883 was 38.[25]  In May, 1886, the average daily attendance in the Eagle Rock primary school had grown to 46 (out of 66 enrolled) and 30 (out of 46 enrolled) in the “advanced” school.[w]

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Besides running her own school, Rebecca Mitchell had her hand in the public school.  She assisted Rev.  Stewart, who had moved from being the pastor of the Baptist Church to the principle of the public school, in organizing a High School, and for a time it met in the church building.[13][x]

The event that may have precipitated Rebecca Mitchell seeking a teaching certificate was the move of the railroad shops and workers from Eagle Rock to Pocatello.  Apparently the loss of population reduced the number of students in her school to the point that it did not continue.  After obtaining her certificate, she opened a school in Egin Bench (near St. Anthony), and also taught in public schools in the early settlements of Poplar, Beaver Canyon and Medicine Lodge.[17]  In her Glimpses of My Life,[7] she writes that she “was free to drop the school work” in 1891 after (1) her daughter was married, (2) a pastor was located for the church, and (3) she was elected State organizer and Superintendent of Franchise for the W.C.T.U.[y]

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While Rebecca Mitchell did not continue teach day school after 1891, she did not lose her heart for students and schools in Idaho Falls.  In 1895 she paid a visit to the High School that was significant enough to be reported in the local newspaper.[53] In 1902 she went to a city council meeting to suggest a caucus to nominate two school trustees.[113]  And it’s very likely that she continued to teach Sunday school when she could.[107, 113, 142]

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The final item that needs to be mentioned here is Mrs. Mitchell’s work starting and maintaining the library in Eagle Rock.  She is credited by all local historians as starting the Idaho Falls library in the winter of 1884-5,[5] but histories don’t always report her purpose for doing it, which was to spread the gospel and make Christian literature available to townspeople. She kept the reading room supplied with Bibles and Christian materials, first in the basement of the Baptist church building, and then when the railroad shops were moved to Pocatello and patronage of the library plummeted, to her own home.[5][z] Mrs. Mitchell, sometimes assisted by the pastor of the Baptist Church, acted as librarian, without pay.[5] The city library was official organized in 1908, the year of Rebecca Mitchell’s death, but remained in the Baptist church building until 1916.

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                Preacher and speaker

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Though one news report[181] calls Rebecca Mitchell an ordained preacher, I do not believe she was ordained[aa] and I’ve found no evidence that she ever sought or held a position of pastor in any church.  One news report[160] says she accepted a call to fill the pulpit in Great Falls, Montana in 1898, but this was surely only a temporary position, as multiple sources put her in Eagle Rock most of that year, and travelling a good part of it as well.[ab]  She preached when asked in Eagle Rock and other places in Idaho, Montana, Utah and Washington, and she was often asked to lead in prayer in various services and meetings.  Often when she spoke in church, she would be billed as a lecturer or speaker, likely due to sensibilities of the time regarding women preachers.

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But Rebecca Mitchell did do a lot of public speaking.  She was in high demand across the state, and reports unanimously praise her speaking abilities. She was reported to be a “very able public speaker, with a strong, beautiful voice, very witty and entertaining,”[2, 24, 27] “as a public speaker she was far above the ordinary and has often been compared with Susan B. Anthony,[17] “a pleasing and convincing speaker,”[65] and “an eloquent speaker.”[89] Reading a little between the lines, I think there were two primary reasons for this praise – she passionately believed in what she preached and spoke and lectured about, and secondly she had broad interests and knowledge and hence could relate well to any audience.

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In 1904 she held revival meetings in Market Lake, Dubois and other points.[121]

In Eagle Rock/Idaho Falls, she spoke at various public as well as church events.  In 1899[ac] she was one of the speakers at a celebration of the return of soldiers from the Spanish-American war, a celebration that drew a crowd of 5,000.[95,201]  At the same event she made the presentation of medals to the soldiers.

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In 1895, at the Independence Day celebration in Idaho Falls, “Mrs. Rebecca Mitchell, in the absence of an orator who was to have been selected for the purpose, spoke briefly in her interesting and forceful way…”[55]  In 1898 she was on the executive committee that planned the Independence Day Celebration in Idaho Falls.[87]

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In 1895, she was one of six speakers at a ceremony in Idaho Falls in which the cornerstone of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church was laid.[223]

Finally, while not an ordained pastor, there were times when she was asked to perform weddings and funerals, which she did.[220]

Concern for Native Americans

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There is no direct evidence Rebecca Mitchell worked with Native Americans, but her writings about them and missionaries who were at Fort Hall show that she had a strong desire that they hear and be transformed by the gospel.  She was friends with Miss Frost who was the longest serving missionary at Fort Hall while Rebecca Mitchell was in Eagle Rock and Idaho Falls. The following is an excerpt from Rebecca Mitchell’s Historical Sketch – Work Among the Shoshone and Bannock Indians:[18, Jan. 2, 1906 issue]

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…No romance could be more thrilling that some of Miss Frost’s experiences right here in Idaho, where multitudes rush backward and forward not realizing that a few miles from the railroad lives a missionary surrounded by a people who not only need Government protection but so much mothering besides to help them realize the benefits and blessings that might be theirs through civilization, joined to heart and hand training which would fit them to use what they have to better advantage.

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Miss Frost enters into all their sorrows, in sickness and in health.  She is the White Mother who helps.  They have learned at last to depend on her and to some extent to yield to her judgment.  A part of the time she had a girl’s school but could only take a few for want of room.  She found these girls not only capable of understanding, but bright and earnest pupils. 

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At first the Indians regarded her with suspicion. They could not understand her motives, so it took long years of patient service and kindly treatment, with much prayer, to disarm them of their opposition.  She found them bound up as it were in their superstitions and heathen way of living and in all things pertaining to the laws of nature they were as untrained as children, so it seemed next to impossible to bring them to see the simple gospel of love as found in the Bible….

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Sometime in the 1890’s the Women’s National Association turned over the mission on the Fort Hall Reservation to the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Board retained Miss Frost as their missionary.  They secured another 160 acres of land for her mission farther out from the railroad where she has continued her work.  A company of Nez Perce Indians, with their pastor, Rev. Hays of the Presbyterian Church, came down for a summer to bring the gospel to their brothers.  Many believed and became followers of Christ.  A church was built where large numbers attend Sunday school and Christian Endeavor as well as the regular services.

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Toiling seed sowing has been the experience of the devoted missionary.  Little by little Miss Frost has proved to them that the God and Bible of the white man belongs to the Indian as well, and so her heart doth rejoice that some men and women have stepped over the line to stand with her for Christ…

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                Working for Christ and His Kingdom

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At the Monday sunrise prayer meeting of the 1895 State Convention of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Mrs. Rebecca Mitchell spoke on “Working for Christ.”[57][ad]  Working for Christ and His Kingdom would be an apt title for Rebecca Mitchell’s 26 years in Idaho.  In 1907 when she was too sick to get out of bed, she concluded a brief note she wrote to the clubs that she had been so much apart of, “…You will pardon me if but one word I say, and that is – work – go forward, there is yet much territory to possess.”[149]

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While initially the focus of that work was on planting a church in Eagle Rock and teaching Sunday school, her focus broadened in later years to include what she would call “justice and truth” at times or “righteousness” at other times.  She had no qualms about bringing her faith into political, community and social spheres. Her faith energized her and guided her for causes she saw as Biblical.  Her work travelling, speaking, lecturing, making personal contacts with legislators and forming and working through clubs made major contributions to:

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• increasing the age of consent for girls in Idaho from 10 to 18[ae]

• securing the right of women to vote

• reforming Idaho’s prison system and parole laws.

 

All references agree on the above and while some mention opposition she faced, all praise her efforts and acknowledge her contributions.  Her Glimpses of My Life covers these efforts far better than I could, so I only want to supplement she wrote with a few comments.

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                                Rebecca Mitchell, the Intercessor

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From all I can gather about Rebecca Mitchell, she was a woman of prayer and her “work” of lobbying for legislation was closely tied to those prayers.  While she was no doubt motivated by the injustice she had experienced herself and which see saw in the state’s laws, I believe a deeper motivation was the truth that she saw in Scripture.  Besides lobbying for the legislation noted above, she lobbied for the position of chaplain of the Idaho House of Representatives, and was elected to that position in both the Idaho 4th Legislative Session (1897) and 5th Session (1899).  From what I could find, her main role as chaplain was to pray, and that was exactly what she wanted to do, what she thought would be the most important thing to do, the most necessary thing to do.

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Her report of her activities in late 1883 included “have held 28 prayer meetings,” and also, referring to outlying settlements “I have talked, sang and prayed with children.”[11]

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One of her first pupils years later remembered the time “…with the unshakeable faith which was hers, (she) was praying for help which she never doubted would be given…”[12]

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At an Ecclesiastical Council of the Baptist church convened in 1892 to consecrate the pastor, Rebecca Mitchell gave the ordaining prayer.[36]

At various other church and community meetings, she was the one who was asked to pray.[100, 137, 209]

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She was the “woman who dared pray publicly for a state and its servants.”[20]

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Her role as chaplain was somewhat of an acknowledgement of a role she had already assumed:  “In her journeying over the state, Mrs. Mitchell became acquainted with most of the men holding official positions and now, deeming it quite right and proper for a woman to do the praying for them, they have with one accord made her the chaplain for their legislature…”[15]

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                                The Women’s Christian Temperance Union

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Today most political action committees tend to focus on a single issue or have a narrow political philosophy, however, that was not the case with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.  While they certainly did seek to influence legislation, the more I read about them, and the more I look into their history, the more I find that they were more of a Christian revival movement than a political action committee.

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“Prayer meetings and pledges characterized the post-Civil war "gospel" temperance movement;” they had their roots in the Great Awakening in the United States.[af]

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“Probably the major portion of the good deeds which they perform are never written or paraded in meetings, but are written on the hearts of men, women and children….”[ag]

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 “WCTU members sought social reforms on the basis of a Biblical vision of social justice.”[ah]

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 “The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union is giving its aid to practically every great movement of the hour for the betterment of the condition of men and women.  But one of its strongest departments devotes its energy to spreading the gospel of moral cleanliness.”[ai]

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Based on II Corinthians 7:1 [Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God] the mission of the group, as expressed by its second president, Francis Willard, was “to organize Christian women for the peace and purity, the protection and exaltation of our homes.”[aj]

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Rebecca Mitchell wrote in Glimpses of My Life[7] that in 1886 a “national organizer of the W.C.T.U. came to Eagle Rock and organized a local union of which I was president.”[ak]  While she attended the State WCTU Convention in Boise that same year, there are few references in Eagle Rock and Idaho Falls newspapers to the WCTU until the early 1890’s, after Mrs. Mitchell felt free to drop her school teaching and devote her energy to the Union. One of her first efforts was to organize a youth temperance organization, the Loyal Temperance Legion (LTL).[16, 38,54]  Programs put on by the LTL don’t look much different from programs her Sunday school or day-school children put on, with songs, recitations and class exercises.[38]  Likewise gospel temperance meetings she held for both children and adults were similar to revival prayer meetings and worship services.[al]

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Another youth organization which she started in Eagle Rock was the “Band of Hope.”[11,23]  Her 1883 report[11] documents that her Band of Hope had been meeting for a year, but later references[23][am] connect it to her W.C.T.U. work. While the Band of Hope was clearly a music group,[23] initially it included weekly sewing lessons as well.[11]  Historically the Band of Hope was a temperance-related organization begun in England that predates the W.C.T.U. in the United States, but apparently later became associated with it.  Reference 16 credits Rebecca Mitchell with organizing the first children’s temperance society in Idaho, which was likely the Band of Hope.

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By August, 1891 Rebecca Mitchell had been appointed “State Superintendent of Franchise for the W.C.T.U.”[7,33,216] which basically meant that she was responsible for starting Unions all over the state.  She put her heart into it, and it took a toll on her body.  At the semi-annual county W.C.T.U. convention in Blackfoot in November, 1891, she reported that she had travelled nearly 400 miles and held 12 meetings in the past month.[228]  Travel was by stage,[an] and roads were poor.

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Six years later, an article reports:

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… she has traveled by stage some thousands of miles, often over dangerous roads and through snow five feet deep, enduring hardships and privations, and later criticism and rebuffs, with the indomitable pluck and faith of a worthy soldier of the cross.[15]

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A 1907 article “A Power for Civic Righteousness” about the W.C.T.U. provides a glimpse of the range of issues that the Union worked on during Rebecca Mitchell’s life, mentioning her, of course, as well as other Union leaders in Idaho:

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There are a few statues written in Idaho which, when read, make the student of Idaho affairs think instinctively of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.  One of these is woman’s suffrage. Another is the anti-gambling act; another the State parole system; then there is the age of consent law, the Sunday rest law, and the vital statistics and registration of births law.

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A small sampling of Rebecca Mitchell’s W.C.T.U. activities and positions include:

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1893

     Represented the W.C.T.U. in Boise to advocate for a bill protecting young girls[39]

     Organized an all-day meeting at the Baptist Church in Idaho Falls celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Women’s Crusade[219]

                Went on speaking tour in northern Idaho[41]

          1894

                Lectured on temperance in Weiser, in February and May[42,43,44]

                Held a Gospel Temperance meeting at the Presbyterian Church in Idaho Falls[233]

                Organized entertainment put on by LTL at the Idaho Falls Armory[46]

          1895

                Delivered a gospel temperance sermon at the First ME church in Boise[49]

                Assisted in worship services at the State penitentiary[50]

                Held gospel temperance services at Birch Creek school house[54]

                Led prayer meeting at WCTU state convention[57]

                Went on lecturing tour in Cassia County[58]

          1896

                Gave address at a gospel temperance meeting at the Baptist church in Idaho Falls[60]

                The Denver Rocky Mountain News reported that she was effective in speaking in support of woman’s suffrage[61]

                Honored at the National WTCU conference in St. Louis[62]

                Delivered lectures in Blackfoot[63,227,228] and Salmon City[237]

           1897

                Lectured on temperance in Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell, Parma, Weiser and northern Idaho[66]

     Preached Sunday morning and evening in the Baptist church in Pullman, Washington[67]

     Lectured several times over a two week period in Grangeville, Idaho to a “large and attentive audience”[68]

     Lectured on temperance in the M. E. Church in Cottonwood, Idaho[69]

     Lectured on temperance in Emmett [71]

     Lectured on temperance in Shoshone [74]

     At the state WCTU conference in Boise, she was appointed to do evangelistic work, also legislative and franchise work, and chosen as          the Idaho delegate to the national convention in Buffalo, New York[77]

         1898

               Managed and promoted the WTCU medal contest in Idaho Falls[80,82,86]

               Presented a paper at the Mother’s Meeting in the Baptist church;[83] organized a later Mother’s Meeting[86]

               Preached at the Baptist church in Anaconda, Montana[89] (and possibly Great Falls as well)[88]

               At local WCTU meeting elected to do evangelistic work, be on the Mothers Meeting committee, and a delegate to the State Convention[90]

         Positions

              The delegate from Idaho to the National Convention in 1892 in Denver, in 1893 in Chicago, in 1896 in St. Louis and in 1897 in Buffalo, and                 to the World Convention in Toronto in 1897

              Idaho State President of the W.C.T.U. in 1892, 1894, 1895 & 1897.[ao]

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In 1906, Mrs. Rebecca Mitchell, along with Mrs. L. L. Knowles and Dr. J. H. Reesor put a “Challenge to Public Debate on the Liquor Question” in the Idaho Falls newspaper:

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In the interest of the greatest good to our city and people, the united Temperance forces of Idaho Falls, acting through their representatives, issue the following challenge to the saloon keepers and others who favor the sale and use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage in our community, viz: that they appoint two or more representatives of the liquor interests to meet an equal number of representatives of the temperance forces for the purpose of arranging a public joint debate on the question: - “Resolved, that the open saloon as now conducted, is a menace to our moral and material prosperity.

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While I could not find any report of saloon keepers accepting the challenge, I did find a report that “the first local victory won by the W.C.T.U. (in Idaho Falls) was when the Anderson Brothers store discontinued the sale of liquor.”[22]  It was common for members of the W.C.T.U. to enter saloons and sing and pray,[ap] although I did not find a source that reported that Rebecca Mitchell did that in Idaho Falls.

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A 1907 article about the W.C.T.U in Idaho, after identifying Rebecca Mitchell along with three others as leaders in the movement, concluded:

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They command universal respect wherever they go and in the respective communities where they live… No organization has opposed wrong more zealously nor striven harder for the right than this.  It has ever been at the head of the procession where sin and debauchery existed and has always kept pace with those who marched the fastest and the longest in the day, where the sunshine of purity and civic righteousness could be let in on the men and women of the state and the nation!.[aq]

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Idaho House of Representative Chaplain & Prison Visitation

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While her work with the W.C.T.U continued after 1898, her election to the position of chaplain of the House of Representatives for Idaho’s 4th and 5th legislative sessions consumed a fair amount of her time.  These sessions were from January 4th to March 8th, 1897 and January 2 to March 7, 1899.[ar]

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In her journeyings over the state, Mrs. Mitchell became acquainted with most of the men holding official positions and now, deeming it quite right and proper for a woman to do the praying for them, they have with one accord made her the chaplain for their legislature.[15]

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There are multiple reports, including her own account, that state that she wanted the position of chaplain and lobbied to get it.   Being so unusual for a woman to be chaplain of a legislative body, reportedly not just a first in the United States but in the world, it’s natural to ask why she pursued it, and why she obtained it.

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The answer to the second of these questions may be in part contained in the above quote, that she had earned respect through personal contacts with many of the members of the legislature, and in part, not unrelated, because of the following:

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…in appreciation of her fortitude, her faithfulness to her mission and her excellence as a citizen she was chosen chaplain of Idaho’s legislature.[14]

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No more popular man or woman could be found in Idaho, and the state’s appreciation of the brave woman-preacher-pioneer was shown in her appointment to the chaplainship of the House of Representatives.[220]

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The answer to the first question is a matter of speculation, but I would wager that her faith in God’s providence, her faith that God answers prayer, caused her to believe that her prayers in the legislature could do as much or more good as any other work.

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For the first time during the session, yesterday’s proceedings in the house were opened with prayer by the venerable chaplain, Mrs. Rebecca Mitchell. She poured out a fervent appeal to the throne of grace that the divine blessing might be bestowed upon the house. [92]

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When she was first elected to the position, being a first and so unusual, the story made headlines throughout the country. A sampling of 32 newspapers from across the nation which carried the announcement are shown as Reference #64, but there were many more. So she gained some national recognition. But then it’s interesting that while in Boise, she spent time with prisoners in the State Prison.[15, 50, 236]  I wonder if she actually spent more time with prisoners than with legislators?  One account of her life, referring to her chaplaincy, seems to imply as much, concluding, “She worked hard at the job (of chaplain), preaching to state prison inmates and securing a parole law.”  While her own sense of justice and injustice must have motivated her to work for the parole law, I suspect the time she spent with individual prisoners, listening to their stories and their family stories also motivated her to work for a parole law.

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However, Rebecca Mitchell was not one to show favor to prisoners where it was not due.  She wrote a letter to newspapers in Denver and Boise protesting a report they published about women showing sympathy and giving flowers to man convicted of murdering a woman in Idaho Falls.[236] As she had been at the prison at the time and had visited most of the prisoners, she seriously doubted the accuracy of the article.  

In late 1897, Mrs. Mitchell was made a “special agent of the state to visit the penal and reformatory institutions of the country, with the special view of making an investigation of the grading and parole system.  The last legislature provided for the parole of Idaho convicts and Mrs. Mitchell’s trip is for the purpose of perfecting the system.”[78,79]

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                                Community Improvement

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Rebecca Mitchell was a charter member of the Village Improvement Society (VIS).[as]  While the WCTU was a national and international organization, and overtly Christian, the VIS was somewhat unique to Idaho Falls and did not claim to be Christian but rather was a civic improvement society, filling a need before the city government took up these responsibilities.  The group was launched in 1898 and its goal as stated in its constitution was the “encouragement and assistance in every practicable way of whatever may promote public convenience and health and render the town more desirable as a place of residence.”[83] Their first major effort was to clean up the town in order to “awaken civic pride,” cleaning “the streets, alleys and vacant lots of old iron and shoes, tin cans and broken dishes and keeping them clean,”[83] by providing garbage bins and making sure townspeople used them.[as] Later projects included cleaning up the cemetery,[21] planting trees along streets, dynamiting the hard-pan and planting trees in what is now Kate Curley Park and, in 1906, taking over the operation and the debts of the city hospital.[at][as]  Working with the Round Table Club, they restarted the city library in 1908, collecting books and providing staff.[as]

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                Author

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I would love to find and read Rebecca Mitchell’s History of the Development of Southeast Idaho.  The article which references it[221] uses it as source material for the forgotten town of Tilford City, and repeatedly refers to Mrs. Mitchell as “Historian Rebecca Mitchell.”                              

I believe I have the complete set of her Historical Sketches, published in the Idaho Falls Times from August 29, 1905 to January 9, 1906.  Many years ago I borrowed the booklet of these sketches from a pastor in Blackfoot, but he moved away and when I later contacted him, he could not locate it.

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I’ve found two poems which she wrote, one a memorial to a friend who passed away.

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Her Glimpses of My Life provides us with insight into her life and work and faith that no other source could.

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Summary Reflections

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In the epistle to the Romans, Paul wrote that he longed to see them so that they could be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith (Romans 1:12).  While we can only see Rebecca Mitchell by looking back over many years of time, I believe her example can be a great encouragement to our faith.

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Naming her work Providence Mission, her life was full of examples of faith, and of working for righteousness and truth. She provides us with an example of a person of prayer, proving that prayer to the God of heaven is effective.

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She was a great example of fulfilling God’s calling on her life, stepping out by faith and letting God lead her to Eagle Rock, and devoting her energy to it.  Her work was a good example of incarnational ministry, making Eagle Rock her home, learning the history of the place God called her, getting to know the needs of the people who lived here.

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Her life was a tremendous example of faith that does not let apparent tragedies – the deaths of her mother, her husband and her daughter - stop her mission, but build her character.  When the town of Eagle Rock lost 80% of its inhabitants in 1887 and a few years later when a financial panic destroyed the economy of the town for another few years, Rebecca Mitchell steadfastly pursued her mission.  And in the last few years of her life when tuberculosis keep her in her home and much of the time in her bed, it seemed to have no effect on her spirit and her enthusiasm for the work God had called her to do. Our coronavirus crisis of 2020 pales in comparison to what she faced, and her message still applies – “work – go forward, there is yet much territory to possess.”

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While at times she had opposition to the causes she worked for, even going out initially as a Baptist missionary, her life is an example of working in harmony with the body of Christ wherever she was.  Though there were times she alone sought God for His provision, or pioneered in efforts no one had done before, most of her work was through clubs, groups and churches. Her life provides us with an example of continually pursuing the kingdom of God, looking for new opportunities, and not being content with past achievements.

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The Museum of Idaho plans to open an exhibit in late 2020[at] called “Way out West” that will “seek to tell the story of the area’s ruggedness, how difficult it was to settle…”[218]  One room will include the story of the life and work of Rebecca Mitchell.[218]  I will be curious to see how they tell her story, and what importance they give to her faith. When she died in 1908, memorial services were held in several communities in the state, with resolutions of remembrance and honor issued.[24, 26,202,218] As we read about the life of Rebecca Brown Mitchell, or see the exhibit about her at the Museum of Idaho, may we glimpse the greatness of her God and the results of her faith in that God and Savior.