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Florence Buck

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Florence Buck
A white woman with blonde or grey hair in a bouffant updo, photographed in profile
Florence Buck, from a 1912 newspaper
BornJuly 19, 1860
Battle Creek, Michigan, U.S.
DiedOctober 12, 1925
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation(s)Educator, suffragist, clergywoman
PartnerMarion Murdock

Florence Buck (July 19, 1860 – October 12, 1925) was an American educator, suffragist, and clergywoman. She was an ordained Unitarian pastor and worked alongside her partner, fellow Unitarian pastor Marion Murdoch. She was on the national staff of the American Unitarian Association (AUA) from 1912 to 1925.

Early life and education

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Buck was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, the daughter of Samuel Pearse Buck and Lucy Reasoner Buck.[1] She was raised in the Kalamazoo home of her uncle, George M. Buck.[2] She graduated from Kalamazoo College and trained for ministry at Meadville Theological School in Pennsylvania.[3] with further studies at Manchester College, Oxford.[4][5] She was ordained in 1893, at All Souls Church in Chicago, during the Parliament of the World's Religions.[6] Antoinette Brown Blackwell attended Buck's ordination ceremony, and Jenkin Lloyd Jones presided.[7][8]

Career

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Buck taught high school science, and was a school principal in Michigan as a young woman.[1][9] From 1894 to 1899, Buck and her partner, Marion Murdoch, were co-pastors at the First Unitarian Church (Unity Church) in Cleveland, Ohio.[6] They also opened a free kindergarten and founded clubs for boys and girls. Later she wrote, "I think it takes two persons to make one good pastor. We find that we can accomplish more good by working together than either could do by assuming all the responsibility of church work alone."[10]

From 1901 to 1910, Buck was pastor of a Unitarian church in Kenosha, Wisconsin.[11] In 1910, she was temporary pastor of a church in Palo Alto, California,[12] and from 1911 to 1912, she served a church in Alameda, California.[13][14]

An illustration of Marion Murdoch and Florence Buck, two white women wearing dark dresses with high collars
Marion Murdoch and Florence Buck, in an 1894 newspaper

She moved to Boston,[15] and was an executive of the AUA Department of Religious Education from 1912 to 1925.[5] She edited The Beacon, a religious instruction magazine,[16] and The Beacon Hymnal,[17] wrote for other denominational publications, and ran summer institutes for teachers.[7] She preached at Unitarian churches and events in New England in her last years,[18][19][20] including at Boston's King's Chapel.[3]

Buck and Murdoch both spoke at the 1898 convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Buck was the first woman awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree at Meadville Theological School, in 1920, and in 1923. She served on the council of the Religious Education Association.[21] "She has given her own enthusiastic self most unreservedly, and it would be a dull, damp fire that would not be kindled by her presence," reported The Pacific Unitarian in 1920, about her speaking tour of California that year.[22]

Publications

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  • The Story of Jesus: A Manual for Religious Instruction in the Intermediate Grades (1917)[23]
  • "Religious Education for Democracy" (1919)[7]
  • "A Unified Educational Program" (1924)[24]
  • "Can We Have an Intelligence Test in Morals and Religion?" (1924)[25]

Personal life and legacy

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Buck had a long personal and professional partnership with fellow Unitarian pastor Marion Murdoch.[26][27] Buck died in Boston, from typhoid fever, at the age of 65.[16] Caroline Bartlett Crane and Ella Lyman Cabot were among the prominent colleagues who wrote published tributes after Buck's death.[4][28]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Necrology". Unitarian Year Book. American Unitarian Association. 1927. p. 93.
  2. ^ "Two Women Pastors; The Occupy the Pulpit of Unity Church". The Cleveland Leader. 1894-04-14. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-09-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b "Florence Buck, BD 1894, DD 1920". Meadville Lombard Theological School. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  4. ^ a b Crane, Caroline Bartlett (January 1926). "Florence Buck, D.D." The Woman's Journal. 10 (7): 32.
  5. ^ a b "Woman Pastor to Head National Movement". San Francisco Bulletin. 1912-07-29. p. 11. Retrieved 2024-09-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b Morton, Marian (2020-05-18). "Buck, Rev. Florence". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  7. ^ a b c Zierner, Melissa (2002-05-08). "Buck, Florence". Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  8. ^ "A Church with Two Women Pastors". The Outlook. 49 (19): 834. May 12, 1894.
  9. ^ Tucker, Cynthia Grant (1994). Prophetic sisterhood : liberal women ministers of the frontier, 1880-1930. Internet Archive. Bloomington : Indiana University Press. pp. 70–71, 82. ISBN 978-0-253-20822-4.
  10. ^ Hitchings, Catherine F. (1985). Universalist and Unitarian women ministers. Internet Archive. Boston, Mass. : Unitarian Universalist Historical Society. pp. 35–36 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ^ "Ministry Her Great Career; Rev. Florence Buck, D.D., Noted Scholar, Well Known Here". Kenosha News. 1923-03-26. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-09-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Annual Meeting of Palo Alto Church". The Pacific Unitarian. 19 (2): 52–53. December 1910.
  13. ^ "California Woman on Unitarian Board". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 1912-08-03. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-09-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Child Problems Taken as Topic by Rev. F. Buck". Oakland Tribune. 1912-02-07. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-09-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Boston Woman is Guest Here". The Peninsula Times Tribune. 1920-02-28. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-09-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ a b "The Rev. Florence Buck". The New York Times. October 13, 1925. p. 23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  17. ^ "New Hymnal Ready November 1". The Christian Register. 103 (28): 675. July 10, 1924.
  18. ^ "Preachers at Clinton, Mass". The Christian Register. 103 (11): 261. March 13, 1924.
  19. ^ "Young People in Union Service". The Christian Register. 103 (42): 1010. October 16, 1924.
  20. ^ "Institute at Franklin, N.H." The Christian Register. 103 (42): 1008. October 16, 1924.
  21. ^ "The Council". Religious Education. 14 (3): 228. June 1919.
  22. ^ "Events: Rev. Florence Buck". The Pacific Unitarian. 29 (4): 97. April 1920 – via Internet Archive.
  23. ^ Buck, Florence (1917). The story of Jesus, a manual for religious instruction in the intermediate grades. Cornell University Library. Boston, Mass. : The Beacon press.
  24. ^ Buck, Florence (April 24, 1924). "A Unified Educational Program". The Christian Register. 103 (17): 399.
  25. ^ Buck, Florence (June 5, 1924). "Can We Have an Intelligence Test in Morals and Religion?". The Christian Register. 103 (23): 541.
  26. ^ Portrait and Biographical Record of Dubuque, Jones and Clayton Counties, Iowa: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the Counties, Together with Biographies and Portraits of All the Presidents of the United States. Chapman Publishing Company. 1894. p. 503.
  27. ^ Greenwood, Andrea; Harris, Mark W. (2011-08-11). An Introduction to the Unitarian and Universalist Traditions. Cambridge University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-139-50453-9.
  28. ^ Cabot, Ella Lyman (June 1926). "Dr. Florence Buck". Religious Education. 21 (3): 262–263. doi:10.1080/0034408260210304 – via Internet Archive.
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