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Other Women Ministers from the Past
She studied at Lancaster Junior College, today Atlantic Union College, in
Massachusetts, graduating in 1920. While she was a student, Mabel and other
committed young women from the college contributed volunteer work, sometimes
around the clock, for victims of the dreadful flu epidemic that swept Clinton and
Lancaster during World War I.
After graduation, Mabel began her lifelong work for the Seventh-day Adventist Church
by serving as a Bible instructor in churches in Boston, Pittsf ield, and Springfield.
In 1924 she moved to upstate New York and worked for the New York Conference
until her retirement in 1960. As a Bible worker she prepared converts for church
membership in Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, Elmira, Cortland, Syracuse, and Watertown.
While she was working in Watertown, Mabel Vreeland was asked by the conference
administration to pastor that district. “Mabel’s courage, stamina, and faith have always
been strong,” David Knott wrote, “but I believe those qualities were put to the test in
this snow belt district of New York.” Since there were no other women pastors in the
conference, “Mabel was a pioneer in more than one sense.” (From “At Rest: Mabel Alice
Vreeland,” David W. Knott, AUC Accent (Summer, 1985): 26.)
During 1951, because no male pastor appeared interested in pastoring the cold North
Adirondack District around Saranac Lake, conference leaders asked Mabel whether she
would take that assignment. She was willing to go. Her ingenuity and dedication were
challenged by the many needs to be filled and the hazards and climate to be braved.
The district consisted of three churches 66 miles apart. Although Mabel was not
mechanically inclined, with her used car and tire chains she risked deep snow drifts on
isolated roads in winter weather that saw temperatures dip to 40 degrees below zero.
She had adventures to relate from her journeys on those lonely, snow-packed roads,
sometimes miles from any human habitation or help. Angels must have been her traveling companions.
Pastoring three congregations involved preaching and much more: holding bake sales
to meet expenses, painting and doing repair work, while constantly visiting and ministering to the needs of the members.
Miss Vreeland continued this demanding pace until health problems with cancer led
to her retirement in 1960. Then she worked actively to regain her health. She carefully
built up soil and from it grew healthy plants for food. Her cheerful spirit and healthful
diet resulted in a dramatic improvement in her physical condition. She enjoyed a quarter
of a century of life after her health crisis, living on her farm.
After retirement Mabel Vreeland still participated in the work of the church. Until the
age of 81 she cheerfully took charge of housing at the annual ten-day camp meeting held
by the New York Conference in Union Springs, New York, where she could see many of
her friends and converts.
An intensely active woman who exemplified love, faith, and joy in her life, this
pioneer minister has left deeply etched memories in the minds of her former parish-

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