Church plaque honors one of the founders of Christ Episcopal

Christ Episcopal Church is at the northwest corner of Fountain and Themis streets in Cape Girardeau. (Sharon Sanders ~ ssanders@missourian.com)

A small article published in 1942 in the Southeast Missourian tells the story of Mary Langdon Frizzell Russell and her granddaughters' efforts to honor her memory.

Published Nov. 24, 1942, in the Southeast Missourian:

PLAQUE IN CHURCH HONORS EARLY MEMBER

A bronze plaque, honoring the memory of Mrs. Mary Langdon Frizzel Russell, one of the founders of Christ Episcopal Church, was dedicated Sunday morning at the 11 o'clock services at the church. The Rev. C.L. Stanley, rector, had charge of the brief ceremony.

The plaque, mounted inside the building, was presented as a memorial by three granddaughters -- Mrs. C.A. Vandivort, 504 North St., and Mrs. J.C. Ingraham and Mrs. Frank Magill of St. Louis. Mrs. Russell, who was born in 1821 and died in 1895, was the first woman to be baptized in an Episcopal Church in this section of the state. She was among the first persons here affiliated with the Episcopal faith and was instrumental in founding the local congregation. Mrs. Vandivort said her grandmother and other early settlers in the community prevailed on the bishop, who then controlled an area much larger than the present diocese of Missouri, to establish a church in Cape Girardeau. Mrs. Russell and others were for years after its establishment leaders in keeping the church intact and promoting its growth.

A front-page story in The Cape Girardeau Weekly Democrat gives more details her life, calling her a "woman of pure heart and capacious intellect.

Published Sept. 14, 1895, in The Cape Girardeau Weekly Democrat:

DEATH CALLS

And Mrs. Mary L. Russell Is No More.

She lived the life of a Christian and met death without fear.

Entered into rest on September 10th, 1895, Mrs. Mary L. Russell, aged 73 years.

In her death there departed from among us a woman of pure heart and capacious intellect. To friends no one could have been more loyal than she was to hers, or, in an hour of perplexity a wiser counselor. From infancy to advanced age, as daughter, wife, mother and neighbor she discharged every duty. No acrid speech or bitter reproach ever escaped her lips or found lodgement in her bosom. Her toleration and charity were as wide extended as humanity. Every ill of life that befell her was met undauntedly, and whatever else was the result she emerged a truer and a more Christian woman. She had much of which to be proud. She had an ancestry which, on the paternal side, for generations was justly distinguished for culture and successful management of great affairs. Her father, Joseph Frizzell, was of French descent, though his place of nativity was New Hampshire. He was educated, and for many years resided in Boston; he afterwards moved West and was a successful merchant in St. Louis and Jackson. He was a master of several languages, and spoke them fluently without perceptible accent. His business letters now in possession of his family show them to be the production of an alert and cultivated business man, and deserve publication. He died at an early age but left a handsome provision for his family.

Mrs. Russell's mother was a woman of large mental endowments, and received an education bestowed upon but few young women in America in the first years of this century, and was gifted with remarkable talent for painting. She was educated in Salem, North Carolina, at which point, at one time was located the most celebrated female school in this country.

Mary L. Frizzell was born July 28th, 1822, and in her early childhood was baptized by the Rev. Benjamin Harroll, the first Episcopal minister who found his way into Missouri, and through all her life was a devoted member of that church. In her early girlhood she was sent to a female school at Bethel, Pennsylvania, to be educated, where she remained until she was graduated, and where she imbibed a love for literature, which remained with her and which love she indulged far into the period of her last long fatal illness. Through all her life it was her rule, not to permit herself to become so absorbed with her social or domestic duties, but that she could devote at least an hour each day to classic literature. In her maidenhood she was largely under the tutelage of her maternal grandfather, Col. George Frederick Bollinger, a man conspicuous for ardent patriotism, great force of character, originality and success in his interests, and to him his grandchild was indebted for much of her worldly wisdom. In 1843 she was married to Joseph W. Russell of St. Louis, who was a civil engineer by profession, a man of many accomplishments, and was a member of a family whose social position was equal to that of any, a distinction transmitted through many generations.

Their married life was of but a few years duration, it was severed by the untimely death of the husband in 1852, an event which she never ceased to mourn through 43 years of widowhood. She was a proud woman, that pride which is born of distinguished ancestry, of conscious worth and a knowledge that every duty in life is well done; it was that noble pride that save the woman from vulgar ostentation. From death she had nothing to fear, like the faithful servant she could say:

"Master, thou deliveredst to me five talents; behold, I have gained besides them, five talents more."

Mrs. Russell leaves, besides many friends, three children to mourn her departure, Mrs. Martha Sanford, wife of Hon. Linus Sanford, of Jackson, Mrs. Julia E. Harris, wife of Dr. S.S. Harris of Cape Girardeau, and James W. Russell of Birds Point, Missouri.

Mary Russell's will instructed her family to bury her next to her husband in the Jackson City Cemetery. After numerous real estate and other bequests, the will also stipulated that a tract of ground in Jackson be deeded to "the Right Rev. Daniel S. Tuttle, D.D., bishop of Missouri of the Protestant Episcopal Church," for construction of an Episcopal church there within 25 years.