Lucy Farrow (1847—1911)
Country of Origin
-
United States
Countries/Regions of Ministry
- United States
Traditions
- Pentecostal
Ministries
- Pastor
- Evangelist
- Missionary
Lucy Farrow was an African American Holiness pastor, evangelist, and missionary whose ministry significantly influenced the emergence of the twentieth-century Pentecostal movement. Although she left few written records, her leadership in Houston, Texas, her role in the beginnings of the Azusa Street Revival, and her missionary service in Liberia established her as one of the most influential African American women in early Pentecostal history.
Farrow was born in 1847 [possibly 1851] in Norfolk, Virginia, and was enslaved as a child. Contemporary records described her as "mulatto," indicating mixed African and European ancestry. Some later traditions identify her as a niece of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, suggesting that her mother was Douglass's sister, although this relationship has not been conclusively documented.[1]
Following the deaths of her husband and five children, Farrow moved with her surviving son to Houston, Texas, where she became active in the Holiness movement. By 1905, she led a small Holiness congregation in Houston and had earned a reputation as a gifted preacher despite the racial and gender barriers of the post-Reconstruction South.
In 1905, Charles F. Parham hired Farrow to care for his children while he conducted ministry in Kansas. Before leaving Houston, she asked fellow Holiness minister William J. Seymour to preach in her absence. While in Kansas, Farrow attended Parham's meetings and became the earliest documented African American to receive what Pentecostals identified as the baptism in the Holy Spirit accompanied by speaking in tongues. Upon returning to Houston, her testimony profoundly influenced Seymour, who questioned her about the experience after hearing her speak in tongues.
Farrow subsequently introduced Seymour to Parham, and Seymour accepted Parham's teaching on Spirit baptism even before personally experiencing speaking in tongues. While continuing to pastor her congregation, Farrow assisted both Parham and Seymour in evangelistic meetings, altar ministry, and work at Parham's Bible school.
Farrow's congregation in Houston became the indirect launching point for the Azusa Street Revival. When Neely Terry of Los Angeles attended services at Farrow's church, she heard Seymour preach and recommended him to Julia Hutchins's congregation in California. Seymour accepted the invitation in early 1906.
After Seymour encountered opposition from Hutchins's congregation, revival meetings moved to 214 North Bonnie Brae Street. Recognizing Farrow's spiritual leadership and experience with Pentecostal worship, Seymour invited her to Los Angeles. Arriving in early April 1906, she immediately assumed an important leadership role in the prayer meetings, particularly through praying for seekers by the laying on of hands. Contemporary accounts report that many participants, including Seymour himself, received the Pentecostal experience of speaking in tongues during these meetings. Within days, the meetings relocated to 312 Azusa Street, where the revival became the principal catalyst for the global Pentecostal movement.
The Apostolic Faith newspaper described Farrow as "God’s anointed handmaid," reflecting the esteem in which she was held. Although Seymour emerged as the recognized leader of the mission, Farrow exercised considerable spiritual influence during the revival's formative weeks.
Soon after the revival began, Farrow sensed a call to return to Virginia. On her journey, she ministered at a Pentecostal camp meeting in Houston, where numerous participants reported receiving Spirit baptism after she prayed for them. Among those influenced by her ministry was Howard A. Goss, later a prominent Pentecostal leader and an influential figure in the founding of the Assemblies of God.
Arriving in Portsmouth, Virginia, in the fall of 1906, Farrow conducted evangelistic meetings that reportedly resulted in approximately 200 conversions and at least 150 people receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Convinced that God had called her to missionary service in Liberia, she wrote to Seymour requesting that another worker continue the Virginia ministry while she joined a missionary party traveling to Monrovia. Supported primarily by offerings from the Azusa Street Mission, she served in Johnsonville, Liberia, for approximately nine months, preaching, evangelizing, and encouraging emerging Pentecostal believers. Mission reports stated that many accepted Christ through her ministry and that at least twenty believers testified to receiving Spirit baptism.
Returning to the United States in late 1907, Farrow conducted meetings in Littleton, North Carolina, before returning to Los Angeles in 1908, where she again assisted Seymour. During this period she lived in the "little faith cottage" behind the Azusa Street Mission while continuing evangelistic ministry. She later returned to Houston, where she spent her remaining years with her son. Farrow died there in 1911 and is buried in the Olivewood Cemetery in Houston.
Notes:
For Further Reading:
- Williams, Michelle D. "Why We Can’t Forget the Women Leaders of Azusa Street," Feb. 10, 2021, Christians for Biblical Equality, https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/women-leaders-azusa-street/
- Alexander, Estrelda Y. Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011.
- Espinosa, Gastón. William J. Seymour and the Origins of Global Pentecostalism: A Biography and Documentary History. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.