Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Payson Prentiss

The Prentisses settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where George became pastor of South Trinitarian Church. In 1845, she married George Lewis Prentiss, a brother of her close friend Anna Prentiss Stearns. Two years later, she left for Richmond, Virginia, to be a department head at a girls' boarding school.

In 1838, she opened a small girls' school in her home and took up a Sabbath-school class as well. By age 16, Elizabeth had become a regular contributor of stories and poems to 'The Youth's Companion,' a New England religious periodical. The family moved to New York City in 1831, and in May of that year, Elizabeth made a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ and joined the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church.įrom an early age, Elizabeth exhibited sharp mental abilities, deep and ready sympathy, and an exceptional perceptiveness. Elizabeth was deeply impacted by the death of her father, who had suffered from tuberculosis for over a year, on October 22, 1827.

The family gathered for prayer three times a day.

The influences of New England Christianity, consisting of the inherited Puritan foundation with added evangelistic, missional, and philanthropic elements, were evident in the Payson family. BiographyĮlizabeth Payson was born in Portland, Maine, United States, the fifth of eight children (only six survived infancy) of the eminent Congregationalist pastor Edward Payson.

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Payson Prentiss