Rachel Davies

Who was Rachel Davies?

Rachel Davies was a Welsh-born lecturer and evangelist preacher who emigrated to the USA. She was the first woman minister ordained in the state of Wisconsin. Rahel o Fôn is the Welsh Bardic name for “Rachel of Anglesey”.

She started preaching with the Baptists at the age of 20. She was later invited on a preaching tour of the United States and when living in Ixonia she joined the Calvinistic Methodists. While in Wisconsin, she met and married Edward Davies, a prosperous wagon maker who had emigrated to Watertown, Wisconsin from Tregaron, Wales. After her husband died she was ordained a minister, at the age of 44, and carried on preaching all her life.

She returned to Wales for a period and lived at her sister's home Cefn Derwen, Anglesey across from Caernarfon Castle. At one time she gave some assistance to David Lloyd George in his electoral campaign.

She died 29 November 1915 in Washington, DC at her son's home and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Watertown, Wisconsin. A 50 ft stained glass window given in her memory by her son, Joseph E. Davies, can be seen at the Washington National Cathedral.