Evangeline Booth was one of the early commanders of the Salvation Army in the United States. She was the first woman to hold the post. Her work to help the nation's poor and her efforts to provide aid to U.S. soldiers in Europe during World War I won her the admiration of the American public.
Background
Evangeline Booth was born on the 25th of December, 1865 in London, England, United Kingdom and was known to her family as Eva and grew up in a lively, religiously supercharged household. Evangeline was the daughter of Salvation Army (SA) founders William Booth and Catherine Mumford.
Education
Evangeline was educated at home and grew up doing the work of the Salvation Army.
Career
As a teenager, Evangeline Booth's first regular work for the Army was selling The War Cry; at age 17, she also began preaching. She went to live in the Seven Dials district of the East End and, with a group of other volunteers, spread the gospel, visited sick and poor at home, and gradually converted local residents from an attitude of suspicion to one of gratitude. At times, disguised as a match-seller or flower-girl, she lived the life of the people she aimed to help and made frequent visits to prisons to read scripture with penitent inmates.
In 1888 she became an administrator of International Training College in Clapton, England. At the age of 30, in 1895, Booth arrived in Canada to replace her brother Herbert as field commissioner of the Salvation Army in that country. Having worked in some very rough environments in England, Booth found conditions around the city of Toronto to be relatively placid, and she worried that there would not be much for her to do in Canada. But she soon found her calling in the frontier areas of the north such as the Yukon and Alaska, where gold prospectors had formed unruly boomtowns. For nine years she traveled and preached among the settlers and the native people of the area in what she later called "one of the most arduous toils in my experience."
But not even her challenging work in Canada could prepare her for the scope of her next task. In 1903, her sister Emma, the commander of the United States Salvation Army, died in New York City. Emma had created a solid foundation for the Army in the United States; at the time of her death its assets were worth 1.5 million dollars and almost 700 stations had been founded across the country. Evangeline was selected to serve as the new U.S. commander, but she was intimidated at the prospect of trying to live up to her sister's greatness. She was appointed to the post of American commander in 1904 and resigned in 1934.
Once arriving in New York, Booth immediately began to address the extreme poverty she found among immigrants there. One of the main problems was hunger; she attacked this by establishing bread lines and programs to feed school children. Other public service projects she took on were providing emergency relief during disasters, providing aid to hospitals, and helping the elderly. By focusing on such activities, Booth won over support from people who had initially been wary of the Salvation Army's religious overtones.
In the 1920s, the Salvation Army suffered a period of internal turmoil. In 1929, the Salvation Army held its first election for the post of general and Bramwell Booth was replaced with Edward J. Higgins. When the next elections were held in 1934, Salvation Army members turned to the woman who had done so much to raise the image of the organization, electing Evangeline Booth to the position of general. She completed only one five-year term before retiring from the organization in 1939 at the age of 74. Having served the Salvation Army in three different nations during her long career, it seemed fitting that her last years were spent overseeing an organization that had grown to an international success with volunteers in more than 50 countries.
After retiring as general in 1939, she decided to spend her last years in America and sailed through the submarine hazards of the North Atlantic back to New York in the fall of 1939. Booth lived in Westchester County, New York, until her death in 1950, surrounded by Salvation Army friends, still making frequent speeches to the faithful and honored for her life's work, but finding it difficult to let go of the Army's affairs.
Among her published works are “The War Romance of the Salvation Army” in 1919, with Grace Livingston Hill; “Songs of the Evangel” that was written in 1927, a collection of hymns she composed; “Toward a Better World” in 1928); and “Woman” in 1930.
Booth’s only political involvement was to throw the weight of the Salvation Army behind the movement for prohibition and against the later movement for repeal.
Views
Evangeline Booth used her oratorical talent to speak out on other topics that crossed religious boundaries, including women's rights and the prohibition of alcohol.
Quotations:
“Drink has shed more blood, hung more crepe, sold more homes, plunged more people into bankruptcy, armed more villains, slain more children, snapped more wedding rings, defiled more innocence, blinded more eyes, dethroned more reason, wrecked more manhood, dishonored more womanhood, broken more hearts, blasted more lives, driven more to suicide and dug more graves than any other evil that has cursed the world”.
“It is not how many years we live, but what we do with them”.
“Who can estimate the wealth of worth caged in a little child?”.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
Evangeline was known for both her musical talent and her striking personal appearance, she soon received the byname “White Angel of the Slums”.
Quotes from others about the person
Sallie Chesham: “In elite circles she was the Salvation Army”.
“To the American public Evangeline Booth personified the Salvation Army, and as its head she received the tributes paid to the Army," wrote Salvationist historian Herbert Wisbey.
Connections
Evangeline Cory Booth was never married and had no children.