Lemak’s Park Church Lecture Now Available

Posted on by Center for Mark Twain Studies

The 2024 Park Church Summer Lecture Series, organized by the Center for Mark Twain Studies (CMTS), continued its annual series on Wednesday, July 17 at The Park Church. The lectures will continue each Wednesday through July. The lectures are free and open to the public and recordings of the lectures will be posted to the CMTS website.

Mary Lemak, recent graduate from the University at Albany, presented “‘Making of a woman minister’: Rev. Annis Ford Eastman and Elmira, New York.”

This talk explores the life and career of one of the United States’ first female ministers, the Reverend Annis Ford Eastman (1852-1910). Mostly remembered today as the author of Mark Twain’s eulogy and as the mother of two famous children: Max Eastman, famous author and liberal activist, and Crystal Eastman, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.  R, Annis Eastman, however, had a career that was exceptional in its own right. Eastman was ordained when it was practically unheard of for a woman to preach. Not only did she become a minister but she was invited to speak at national conferences and was frequently published in religious and civic journals. Despite her skills as an orator, author, and theologian, her career was actualized, in part, because of her relationship with her husband, Reverend Samuel Eastman. A further contributing factor to her ordination was the unique religious and social environment of Upstate New York during the second half of the nineteenth century. The Eastmans moved around New York’s Burned-Over District before settling down in Elmira, New York. While the Burned-Over District had a rightful reputation for militant progressivism, Elmira was almost unique in its political and socioeconomic situation. Elmira at this time was a hotbed for radical religious and political thought under the control of a politically progressive railroad tycoon, Jervis Langdon, the father-in-law of Mark Twain. Annis Eastman’s career reached its peak in the 1890s as the United States transitioned between the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. Her position as a woman minister and the politics that she espoused given her platform are emblematic of that shift.

Mary Lemak recently graduated from the University at Albany’s undergraduate history program. Her honors thesis “‘Making of a Woman Minister’” focused on the Reverend Annis Ford Eastman and her tenure at the Park Church. She is an Elmira native and worked for the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies from 2018 to 2023. In the Fall 2024, she will attend the University at Buffalo School of Law.

See Additional 2024 Park Church Summer Lectures:

  • Wednesday, July 24 – Edward Guimont, “The Cosmic Mark Twain”
  • Wednesday, July 31 – Barbara Snedecor, “‘the dearest little woman in the world’: Letters of Olivia Clemens to her Sister, Susan Crane”

About The Trouble Begins Lecture Series

In 1984, the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies initiated a lecture series, The Trouble Begins at Eight lecture series. The title came from the handbill advertising Mark Twain’s October 2, 1866 lecture presented at Maguire’s Academy of Music in San Francisco. The first lectures were presented in 1985. By invitation, Mark Twain scholars present lectures in the fall and spring of each year, in the Barn at Quarry Farm or at Peterson Chapel in Cowles Hall on Elmira College’s campus. All lectures are free and open to the public.

In 2016, CMTS expanded the series and in partnership with the Park Church, created the Park Church Summer Lectures Series.  Founded in 1846 by a group of abolitionists, The Park Church has been a strong presence in Elmira’s history and some of its congregation were close friends and family members to Mark Twain. Known for its striking architectural features, The Park Church contained Elmira’s first public library and has a long history of charitable service to the Elmira community.