intellectually disabled. Emily, her brother and sister and their spouses had lived in Greenwood since before 1840. Methodists among them probably had already talked about church members especially the sick, widows, mothers with young children and young mothers needing more spiritual support from traveling preachers. But it probably was just talk. Nothing may have stirred among Greenwood Methodist women until Elizabeth arrived. Elizabeth and Emily probably formed the nucleus of the Methodist women’s group who founded Greenwood Methodist Church. Their informal conversations about day-to-day matters of running a household expanded as they learned more about each other and what they had in common. Two things stood out right away: both were Methodists with disabled family members. Emily’s younger sister was disabled. See Elizabeth’s stepson mentioned above. Topics they discussed grew when Elizabeth probably talked about her widowhood when she did not have to depend on her children for support and when Emily probably talked about her twice- widowed mother who had to depend entirely on her children and stepchildren for support. Likely, Elizabeth and Emily’s conversations expanded to include a typical question, “What can we Methodist women do to help each other?” Then, Emily surely suggested they invite her sister-in-law Eliza to join them. The three probably met in Elizabeth’s home. As they explored what they had in common, subjects probably ranged from widows, widows with young children, young mothers, to disabled children. When Louisa Jane Merriman moved to Main Street in Greenwood from Cokesbury, she became Elizabeth’s neighbor. Elizabeth and Louisa Jane promptly discovered their common C HARLES C OUNTY , M ARYLAND roots. As they got to know each other, Elizabeth probably disclosed her first marriage to an older man was much like Louisa Jane’s marriage. She also quickly recognized Louisa Jane, as a “woman of strong positive convictions,” could bolster the conversations she, Emily and Eliza were having and sharpen their focus. Elizabeth invited Louisa Jane to join them. Then, one more common experience emerged. Eliza and Louisa Jane discovered their mothers died when they were both very young, so young that they may have had no recollections of them.
digital image, Ancestry.com (access through participating libraries : 20 December 2018); citing NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 848.
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