Minerva Brace Norton

Minerva Brace Norton (née, Brace; January 7, 1837 - October 2, 1894) was an American educator and writer. She was from her early youth until her last days a constant contributor to periodical literature. For most of her life, she also filled the role of a pastor's wife.

Early life and education

Sarah Minerva Brace was born in Rochester, New York, January 7, 1837. She was of American Revolutionary and New England ancestry, the Braces, of Connecticut, and the Thompsons, of New Hampshire and Vermont. She was the daughter of Captain Harvey and Hannah Thompson Brace, New England pioneers to Wisconsin.

The family first moved to Michigan and, when she was nine years old, to Janesville, Wisconsin, where her youth was spent. Her education was received in the schools of Janesville, and under Mary Mortimer, in Milwaukee College, and in Baraboo Female Seminary from which she was graduated in 1861.

Career

She spent the years of her early adulthood as a teacher in the schools where she had studied, her favorite lines of study and work being metaphysics, mathematics and history. She was assistant editor of the Little Corporal in Chicago, in 1866, and subsequently did considerable editorial work.

She married Rev. Smith Norton, April 18, 1867, Congregational minister. She devoted most of the years of her married life to domestic and parish duties. For 27 years, she a leader in the work of that church, especially home and foreign missions. Her work extended from New Hampshire to Dakota Territory, and its record is found in part of the book entitled Service in the King's Guards, the joint work of herself and husband. She also served as secretary of the Woman's Board of Missions, Boston, Massachusetts, in 1876 and 1877.