Helen Barrett Montgomery (1861-1934)
Helen Barrett born July 31, 1861 in Kingsville, Ohio, the oldest of three children born to Adoniram Judson and Emily Barrows Barrett. Her parents were teachers. As a child her father moved the family to Rochester, N. Y. to attend the Rochester Theological Seminary. He became pastor of the Lake Avenue Baptist Church, a position held until his death in 1889. Helen Barrett graduated from Wellesley College in 1884, became a teacher, first at the Rochester Free Academy and then for two years at the Wellesley Preparatory School in Philadelphia, Pa. She returned to Rochester, married William A. Montgomery, a businessman, on September 6, 1887. Mr. Montgomery’s business, North East Electric Company, would later become the Rochester Products Division of General Mothers. During the early years of her marriage, Helen Barrett Montgomery and her husband adopted a daughter, Edith Montgomery. Helen also organized a women’s Bible class at the Lake Avenue Baptist Church, teaching forty-for years. In 1892, the same church licensed her to preach. In the 1890’s, Montgomery was involved in many efforts on behalf of women’s rights. In 1893, she and Susan B. Anthony formed the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union of Rochester (WEIU), Helen becoming its first president. WEIU served poor women and children in the City. It established a legal aid center, public playgrounds, a “Noon Rest” house for working girls, and safe milk stations for mothers. These “stations” later evolved into public health centers.
She became increasingly involved in the women’s missionary movement, as she grew older. Her activities were so often linked to furthering the rights of women. In 1910, she published Western Women in Eastern Lands, a study that surveyed the status of women in Asia. In 1910-11, Helen embarked on a national tour promoting Protestant women’s mission work, and helped to raise one million dollars, much of which went to establish Christian women’s colleges in Asia. In 1913, at the request of the Federation of Women’s Boards of Foreign Missions, she traveled around the world in order to survey and report on missions. Her report, The King’s Highway, was published in 1915 selling over 160,000 copies. In 1924, she published The Centenary Translation of the New Testament. In this translation, the first by a woman scholar, she sought to make the Greek New Testament more accessible to the “ordinary reader” by using “everyday” language.
Helen ensured that her good works would continue after her death. Her will left over $450,000 to more than 80 institutions, including college3s, churches, missions and hospitals. She died at the home of her daughter Edith (Mrs. George F. Simson) in Summit, N.J. on October 19, 1934 at the age of 73.
Please click here to read about the The Helen Barrett Montgomery Endowed Fund for the Program for the Program for the Study of Women and Gender in Church and Society at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.
*Helen Barrett Montgomery [Photograph] Rochester Public Library, Local History Division Collection
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