Clara Celestia Hale Babcock (31 May 1850 – 12 December 1925) was one of the first women preachers to be ordained within the Restoration Movement, and was a leader within the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).
Clara Celestia Hale was born on May 31, 1850, in Fitchville, Ohio. She married Israel Babcock in 1865.[1] Formerly members of the Methodist Church,[2] the Babcocks joined the Stone-Campbell Movement in 1880 at the Sterling Christian Church in Sterling, Illinois.[1]
Babcock was also active in local temperance movements and served as a leader in the WCTU, becoming president of the Whiteside County union in Whiteside, Illinois, in 1887.[1]
Following a speaking engagement that was likely on behalf of the WCTU at an Erie, Illinois, church in 1888,[2][3] the congregation urged Babcock to be their minister.
She was ordained by Andrew Scott of the Sterling Christian Church in 1889.[4][5] Babcock participated in twenty-eight annual revivals[5] and served as a pastor at churches throughout Illinois, Iowa, and North Dakota.[1]
Prior to her death in 1924, Babcock served as a pastor in Savanna, Illinois.[6]