Iva Durham Vennard (1871–1945)

Abstract

Iva May Durham was born near Normal, Illinois, the youngest child of Jacob and Susan Durham. When she was five years old, her father died from tuberculosis, which he had contracted while enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. Her mother subsequently supported the family through various innovative business ventures including a dressmaking and hat shop, a photograph gallery, and a farm on government land claims in South Dakota. At the age of twelve, Iva was converted and joined the Methodist church. Six years later, after attending a holiness camp meeting where the Rev. Joseph H. Smith¹ was the preacher, Iva experienced sanctification. Along with her religious interests, she was committed to education. She was graduated from Illinois State Normal University, and then for several years, she taught school before attending Wellesley College for a year in 1892. Her plan was to finish her senior year of college at Swarthmore College where she had a full scholarship. The summer before she was to leave for Swarthmore, she encountered Joseph Smith again at the camp meeting. Her biographer recorded that Smith expressed disappointment in her educational plans. “When I knew you a few years ago, I thought you were one young woman who was going to be spiritual; and more than that—a spiritual leader. But I see you seem to have gone mostly ‘to top.’ “² In this excerpt, Iva described the anguish of a night “praying through” her educational ambitions while seeking to discern God’s will.