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Lg U C C E S S F UL WOM E N

SARAH K.

How S uccess is W on

Social S t udies in E ng land

FW ZH

B O S T O N

D L O T H RO P C O M P A N Y

F RAN KLIN AN D HA\VLE Y STRE E TS

C O N T E N T S .

C HA PTE R I.

C 0RSO N

C HA PTE R I I.

MARY LO U I SE BO O TH

C HAPTE R I I I.

F RAN C E S E . W I LLARD

C HA PTE R IV.

M RS . G. R. ALD E N

C HAPTE R V.

MARY VI RG INIA TE RHU N E M ARIO N HARLAN D ”)

C HAPTE R VI.

C HA PTE R VII.

E LLA GRAN T C AM PBE LU ‘

C H APTE R VI I I.

LI’

I‘

TLE R BO DLE Y . (By a F riend )

C HAPTE R

W HE E LE R

C HAPTE R !

BARTO N

C HA PTE R ! I.

AL I C E E . F RE EMAN .

L I S T O F ILLU S TRA T IO N S .

J ulie t C orson

Mary L . Boo th

AM rs . G. R. A lden Pansy

M aryVirg inia Terhune Marion H arland

The S tatue t o Margare t of N ew O rleans

E l la Grant C ampbel l

Dr. Rache l L i ttler Bod ley

M rs. C andace Wheeler

M ists Dora Wheeler

C lara Barton

O rders and Decorat ions rece ived by M iss Barton

S U C C E S S F U L W O M E N !

C H A P T E R I.

JUL I E T C ORSON.

N the winte r of 1 884, the Cleve land Educat ional

Bureau,which was organ ized to give the best

entertainment and instruction to the people at the

lowest possible pr ice s,decided to have a se rie s of

lecture s on cooking,in addition to it s regular course .

We hoped that some of the women of the city,

especial ly t he wives of workingmen , would appre

ciate and appropriate this special instruct ion .

Who should be engaged to give the lessons !

Natural ly we turned to Miss Jul ie t Corson, Super

int endent of the New York School of Cookery.

A t the hour appointed,on Saturday afternoon

,

what was our amazement to find th ree thousand

9

I o JULI E T C ORSON.

pe rsons presen t ! On the platform a gas stove

had been arranged , whi le a man in wh i te apron

stood before a butcher’s block ready to cut h is

quarter of beef as the teache r migh t d ire ct.

Miss Corson,wi th sunny face and pleasant voice

,

mixed herbread or prepared her meat as she talked .

A dozen newspape r reporte rs we re a t the ir tables ,

while ladies al l over t he vast audience were

notes,or wri ting rece ipts

,as she gave them . The

men among her l isteners seemed equal ly intere sted

with t he women ; and why not, since good food,

l ike good air,i s vi tal to one who would do able and

tel l ing work in t he world

Women were pre sent from t he most e legan t

homes of t he ci ty,and from the plainest

,al l equal ly

interested . Each newspaper gave from one t o three

columns dai ly of Miss Corson’s sensible talks about

food and hea l th and of her directions for making

soup,t ea and coffee

,bread and pastry ; and we

trus t that the ci ty was he lped considerably in t he

matters of dige stion,economy

,com fort

,and good

sense . I became mysel f deeply interested in Miss

Corson ; I found her h igh ly educated, refined in

J U L I E T C O RSO N .

JULI E T C ORSON. I 3

manner,one who d ignified and e levated labor

,and

who had gained he r success by her own exertion s .

Born in 1842 , in a Boston suburb,Mt. Pleasan t

,

she l ived and played in that shady retreat t i l l the

family moved to N ew York, when she was six years

old . The mother was a quie t,cul tivated woman ;

the father was absorbed in his wholesal e commis

s ion business .

The ch ild spent most of he r t ime with the family

of her uncle , Dr. Al fred U pham ,brothe r of t he

wri te r on Menta l Ph i losophy. U nder t he loving

care of two of her mother’s si ste rs,andheruncle ’s

gu idance, she stud ied Latin and Greek h istory and

classical poe try. She read dai ly in Mr. U pham’s

large l ibrary, andwas quite conten t to be h i s l i t tle

compan ion book-worm ; for unti l she was a lmost

twelve years of ag e , nearly ten months of every

year were spent on the sofa or t he bed ; neverthe

le ss the l i ttle inval id was amassing great riche s

from her books,and doubtle ss thi s early study pre

pared hermind for her broad work in the future .

But she grew ne ithe r unhappy nor morbid from

her sickness ; and final ly she grew stronge r,and

14 JUL I E T C ORSON.

to he r great joy she was often able to join her broth

e rs’ spor t s ; to learn to row,and fish

, and shoot

with them,and en ter hearti ly into the i r pursui ts.

When Julie t was e ighteen,the gentle mother

d ied,and

,after a t ime , the fathe r brought a new

wife to the home . As he was a man of comfortable

means,there was enough for al l

,but as the brothers

had gone out in to l ife for themse lves,t he new in

mate requested t he daughte r to do the same . U n

used to labor,stil l fra i l i n hea l th

,what could she

find to do ! Ye t do not commiserate he r. But

for be ing forced to earn he r l iving,Miss Corson

would probably have done l i ttle for the world.

Miss El izabeth Powe r,a member of the editorial

staff of t he Afa r} York I i'

mes,then unde r the man

ag ement of Henry Raymond , had been inst rumen

t al in founding a l ibrary for working-girls,in a large

room in t he N ew York U n iversi ty bu ild ing. Young

Mrs . U pham was interested i n th is work. Could

not her cousin be useful he re as l ibrarian ! Only

a smal l salary could be paid,four dol lars a week

,

but th is t he eager Boston girl was glad to obtain .

“ I t seemed a gold mine,

” she once said to me ;

JUL I E T coason. 15

but she l i ttle knew how quickly four dol lars would

vanish when room- rent,board-bil l s and wash ing

bil l s were to be paid out of i t . Often by the t ime

the week was half through , she was out of money,

and then she l ived by means of p i tiful economies .

She says laughingly now that she would often have

been glad of one of the fift een-cen t d inners she

devised late r. Final ly i t was arranged by the kind

hearted founde r of the Woman ’s L ibrary that she

should sleep there on a sofa i n the l ibrary,and

thus save a portion of her expense s ; the l ibrary’s

finances did not warrant an increase of salary.

She made a l i ttl e money,too

,now and then

,by a

poem or a ske tch in the newspapers.

A t last she became acquain ted with seve ral of

the st afi of the Leader, of wh ich Oakey Hal l and

Harry Clapp were then edi tors, and the arrange

ment was made that she should write one first o pag e

article each week, upon the new books,pictures

,

music,and matters of in tere st to women ; for th i s

column she rece ived five dol lars. This seemed

another “ gold mine , and l i fe actual ly looked lux

urions with nine dol lars a week ; four hundred

I 6 JULI E T C ORSON.

six ty-e ight a year ! Presently Dr. Sears,ed itor of

the N a t ional Quart erly Review,wished a hal f-yearly

index made,and th is she did for him accurate ly.

Then he gave her points of article s h e desired,

told her to make researches and wri te,

“ and he

would see what sort of stuff there was in her.

”

The young l ibrarian was t i red and worn,but glad

enough to earn the money and,moreove r, ve ry

proud of wri t ing for the Quarferly,on t he staff of

wh ich she was the only woman-write r.

N ow she w rote an art icle on t he resources and

future of Austral ia,and now she ske tched t he

progress from early times,and the presen t posi t ion

of women in art .

Meantime,her brothers neve r ceased to insist

that t he place for the i r only siste r was in her

fa the r’s house , and th ithe r she did a t last re turn .

But she soon became ve ry i l l from t he effect of

unhappiness there,and her hard l i fe of the year

past ; recovering, she was made t o fee l t he advisa

bility of going back to se lf-support.

In 1873 some ladie s in New York started a

noble chari ty. The re were thousands of young

JUL I E T C ORSON. 1 7

women who needed to earn a l iving,but

,unl ike

the i r brothers,they had been taugh t nei ther profes

sion nor trade . Probably the ir mothers reasoned

that they would marry early, and therefore a trade

would be use le ss ; but know ledge neve r remains use

less to man or woman, married or unmarried . The

free training-schools for these young women , first

Opened in Miss Corson’s own home,were soon lo

cat ed in a large room in Wheele r andWilson ’s sew

ing-machine bui lding,andth i s company

,andothe rs

,

loaned scores of machine s,free of charge

,for ap

plicant s to learn upon. In nine months ove r one

thousand women hadbeen taught thus to sew,and

s i tuat ions had been obtained for three fourth s of

them . Book-keeping,proof- read ing, and short

hand,with which Miss Corson ’s avocations had

made her famil iar, were al so taught free of

charge .

Early i n the spring of 18 74, It was decided to

al so teach domest ic se rvice . A larger house was

taken,where t he basement could be used for a

cooking- school,and meal s could be provided at

cost,to working-girls employed in ne ighboring

18 JULI ET C OR SON .

store s . The upper rooms were turned in to a dor

mit ory, for many young women came hi the r wi th

no money t o pay for e i the r shel ter or food . A

laundry was soon added .

When th is cooking-school was started,be ing the

first in t he country, no one knew j ust what was Spe

cial ly best to be done . As J ulie t Corson was the

secretary of the society— no wonder she was ih

t erest ed in working-girl s from her own trying

experiences— she wrote to the South Kensington

Cooking-School in London but i t proved tha t they

too were j ust beginning and could give l i t tle assis t

ance . However, i t was clear to al l that t he school

must at once have a teacher. The ladies inte r

es t ed were al l busy with the i r own home-cares.

As for Miss Corson herse lf, she knew how to make

coffee , andbro i l a beefsteak, possibly, but she could

read French and German much be t te r than she

could do e i the r. Paul da C hail lu , the travel le r,

had been one of her teachers at the Raymond In

st it u t e . Howeve r, the old adage,

“Where th e re

i s a w i l l , t he re is a way,”once more found an il lustra

t ion in her. She then decided to obtai n the best

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

z o JUL IET C ORSON.

S ti l l if she could make art icle s on books and

pictures intere st ing,why not upon cooking ! The

ignorance on th i s subj ect was lamentable among

both rich and poor, and as she had made the com

position of foods and thei r nutri tive propertie s a

study, she fe l t that she was as we l l fi tted as any

one for thi s work .

In 1876 several weal thy ladies said to her,

Miss Corson,can’t you open a cookery school at

your home W e w ish to come and learn,as we l l

as the cooks .

So,in S t . Mark’s Place , near Cooper Insti tute,

t he famous New York Cooking-School was opened .

From the first i t was a succe ss ; ove r one thousand

pe rsons came each year for a course of le ssons.

Those in good ci rcumstances paid te n dollars for

twe lve le ssons ; wives and daughte rs of working

men, fifty cents a le sson ; while , says Miss Corson ,

I never have le t a person go who wanted to learn ,

and had no money. I gave t o al l what I could

teach .

” But how diffe rent these bright years of

wel l-paid work from the four-dol lars-a-week l ife i n

t he l ibrary !

JUL IET C ORSON. 2 1

In 1877 , on account of t he ra i l road st rike s and

the unsettled condi tion of business, there was much

suffering. Miss Corson we l l knew what poverty

b rought to women and ch i ldren,e special ly when

poverty came because husbands and fathers we re

out of work . She be l ieved righ tly that if she could

show the poor how to l ive comfortably on a smal l

i ncome, she would be confe rring a blessing.

I t was then that she prepared that l it t le book

cal led F ffleen-C erzt D z’

rmersfor W orkzi'zgmen’s F am

z'

lz'

es. She had te sted the rece ipts in he r own

family of five adul ts,and found that wh i le del ica

c ie s could not be provided,plain substantial food

could be,if the teachings of t he book were implic

it ly fol lowed. U pon i ts comple t ion,she offered

t he book to any Chari tab le Socie ty which would

print and give away fifty thousand copies,but no

organ ization was found wil l ing to undertake this

beneficence . Then Miss Corson said,

“ I wil l do

i t myself,

” though she did not know where the

money that was necessary for the work, would

come from . When the book was ready, she an

nounced through the leading papers that al l pe r

2 2 JUL I E T C O R SON.

sons who cal led at her house could have t he book

free . Before seven o’clock t he next morn ing,her

hal l was fi l led with people wai t ing to rece ive the

l i t tle pamphle t.

So wide-spread was the demand for i t, tha t cal l s

came even from Ind ia,China

,Austral ia and South

Ame rica. Countle ss le tte rs have reached herfrom

al l parts of t he world concern ing this book. Some

Socia l ists ardently b lamed her for wri ti ng i t, be

cause,they said

,If capital i sts th ink we can l ive

on fift een-cent d inners,they wil l lower our wages

but general ly the poor fe l t grateful for th is ass ist

ance in making a dol lar go as far as possible .

The six thousand dol lars eve ntual ly spen t in ci r

culat ing the book, came from Miss Corson’s own

hard work,with t he exception of one hundred dol

lars,wh ich was given to he r one dayat t he school,

by M rs. Robert L. S tuart, with the remark,“ Do

what you wish with th i s,Miss Corson .

” As all

that came then was gri s t for E fleen- C ent D z'

fmers,

th i s hundred dollars went _int o the mil l .

A lmost Immediate ly, al l ove r t he country, t he

press and people were talk ing about t he nove l l i tt le

JUL I E T C ORSON. 23

dinner-book . The Bal timore DailyN e ws gave out

over i ts counters one thousand copie s in less than

a week to mee t the individual call s of working

people . The Philade lphia Record re-published i t

entire in i ts columns. The New York Héra ldsaid

When we cons ider that t he breakfast of many a laboring

man’s family in these t imes (of t he rai lroad stri kes in 1877 )

frequently cons ists of bread alone, we canno t give t oo much

praise t o t he book that teaches how t o make savory and

heal thful dishes at a cost of from t en t o fifteen cents.

There is no use in extending ourarguments ! t he book speaks

for i tself and needs no v indicat ion ! for it s earnest au thor,she has nothing t o make ! indeed , for chari ty’s sake, she is a

great loser. The interest we have is in t he pamphlet, which

has secured wide at tent ion, and which is valuable fort he

very poor. E conomy is not a crime. If a poor man can g et

more from t en cents than he is used t o gett ing he is better

off.

The W orkz'

ngman’s Advocate, a labor pape r pub

lished i n A lbany, said

If we could have our own wayabout every thing every

workingman’s fami ly in t he land should feed on roas t beef

every day i f they wanted i t. Bu t this cannot be. In many,many a home i t is not a ques t ion of cho i ce food, but a ques

t ion whether there is any food at al l , or at most whether

there is food enough each day t o g o round. To such fami

l ies we bel ieve t he advice given in M iss C orson’s l i tt le book


wi l l be found invaluable. I t is t he most prac ti cal work of

t he day.

The lette rs of the working-people themselve s

were pathet ic,because they testified how the poor

struggle to l ive,and how warm the ir heart s are

toward those who aid them . One person wrote

If I understand t he papers that you hel p t he poor by let

t ing them have a cook-book free of charge, that they may

learn t he way t o cook for themsel ves and l ive cheap by t hegood advi ce there in, pray send one t o me , for I am greatly

in need of something of that sort. If I was t o wri te for al l

t he poor people in E that would be glad of a chance

t o g e t a book i t would take t wo dozen t o supply them , for

we are in hard luck for t he last four years. Very l i ttlemoney. Very l i ttle work at any pri ce. And what is worse

than al l , winter is coming. Then all work stops. And t he

store-keepers stop trust ing us. S o you see we are very muchin need of a book t o teach us how t o cook what l i tt le we can

g et in a proper way.

Another wrote

Having just finished a p iece in t he paper of your bookt eaching economy I would sayI would be very thankful i f youwould send one t o me . I am a working man, and under smal l

pay, and I have a wife and two chi ldren, and I can bu t j ust

make a l i ving. I fee l as if one of your l i ttle books would bring

l igh t and happ iness into my home again, and if so I could

never thank you enough.

JUL IET C ORSON. 25

S ti l l anothe r

Please send me a book for people of refinement and edu

cation reduced almost t o starvat ion. G0d_wil l reward youtenfold for t he noble impulse of heart that has made youremember t he poor and needy, and I earnestly pray that t hegood work you are engaged in mayg o forward until many

rise up and cal l you blessed .

And here are others

Please send me cop ies of t he pamphle t you have forwork

ingmen, t o produce a hearty meal for r5 cents. W e eat bu t

l i t tle meat . Are not (role, and anything that wi l l help a poor

man wi l l be grateful ly rece ived.

Kind friend J ul iet, for t he last six months I have not

earned a day. Times are very hard. There are plenty

in our factory no better off than myse l f, wi th five t o seven

in a family. P lease send us books.

M Y DEAR MADAM ! I read in t he Sunday papers some

thing of more importance than I ever read in my l i fe, under

t he head of The Food Quest ion.

” My wife read i t , andwas

ver

ganxious t o know how i t could be done . I work in a

shop where we are gett ing 80 cents t o a day there are

abou t 90 men working there. I would suggest tha t you send

us each a copy, that we m aylearn t o feed ourse l ves economi

cal ly. If any person wi th an inte l l igent eye wou ld walk

through our shops and take no t i ce of our lean, haggard,worn-ou t faces and bodies, he would come tot he conclusion

we need some advice .


There is five of us women anda l i t tle boy, and I earn a dol

lara day. I sew lace . Bu t my eyes are poor, and i t is hard .

W'

e don’t Izave mm !! to eat many days . W e want your book

so bad.

I have rece i ved your l i t tle book , and am very grateful t o

you for i t. I t is a great hel p t o me, and I only wish I might

have had i t years ag o. You are doing a noble work and I

pray that Godmay b less you.

Besides this l i tt le book for the poor,Miss Cor

son has given lessons to the workingwomen of the

Five Poin ts House of Industry, t he 7 th Ave .

Chapel,the Episcopal Orphan Home

,the Alexan

der,the Holy Trin i ty

,and Ol ive t Chape l s

,N ew

York,Dr. Vincen t’s Mission , D r. Hal l ’s Mission

C lass,the Wilson Mission

,the She l tering Arms

,

Coope r Insti tute,the W orkingmen

’

s School , the

Brooklyn Industrial Res taurant,the Soldie rs O r

phan ’s Home , and late st at S t. Augustine’s Chape l

of Trin i ty Parish,New York. She was often Qld

a t these places that

husbands were wi l l ing t o stay home in t he evening and take

care of t he chi ldren so that the ir wives could attend ; even

experienced housekeepers, who had said that “ no one cou ld

teach them much about cooking ,” were among t he most at

t ent ive and interested aud i tors.

28 JULI E T coason.

Concord,No rthampton

,Hartford

,Pit t sfield

,Peo

ria,Minneapol is

,Bal timore

,Chicago

,Washington

,

Syracuse , P lainfie ld, Brooklyn , where she gave

courses, the working-people had free lessons .

Nurse s were taugh t cooke ry for the sick at t he

S tate Chari ty Hospi tal , the Brooklyn City and

Matern ity Hospital s,and at the New York

,Brook

lyn andWash ington Train ing Schools for Nurse s.

Before 1878 she had prepared a Text -book and

[J ousekeepe/s Guide, which has now gone through

six editions ; and th i s was at once used in the

Montreal Cooking- School . This book al so con

ta ins a D ietary for Schools,showing what food

and beverages students need, and most usefu l

suggestion s are given about early breakfasts and

mid-day dinners . This “ D ie tary ” was prepared

at the request of Hon . John Eaton , U . S . Com

missioner of Education,and ordered publ ished by

the Secre tary of the Inte rior.

Says Miss Corson

S tudying before breakfast is not conducive t o general

good heal th. If t he rising hour is abou t six in t he morning,t he breakfas t should no t be later than seven ; i f t he meal is

l i kely t o be de layed bevond that hour a cup of mi lk and a


sl i ce of bread should be taken after dressing. E qual ly

important wi th a hearty breakfast is a ful l and wholesome

early dinner of freshly cooked warm meat and vegetables,plenty of bread and some pla in pudding or fru i t ; theseshou ld be wi l l mas ti cated , and accompanied by abou t hal f a

p int of fresh, cool water as a drink .

Before going to Montreal,Miss Corson sen t

word for the ladie s to have th e usual French

cook in readiness to assis t he r. She arrived late

on Saturday,and asked if al l was ready. Ye s ;

only the French cook was lacking. But the ladie s

said they knew Miss Corson could cook and lect

u re at the same time . I t was then too late to do

otherwi se ; so she“ began with fear and trembling

,

$ 7

and got through i t al ive . I t was much more en

joyable to see her own ski lful hands beating t he

eggs,or mixing the dough, and thenceforward she

dispensed w ith he r French cook .

In 1 878 Miss Corson’s we l l-known C ooking M arz

ual was publ ished . I t i s one of t he be s t books

possible to put into the hands of a young house

keeper. Over e igh t thousand copie s have been

sold . M ea ls for M e M il/ion,a smal l book for

twenty and thirty cents, has had an immense sale .


After thi s her F amily C ook B ook was published in

one of t he cheap l ibraries, andhas gone into t hou

sands of home s. She has recently comple ted Prae

and i s al so preparing two books to be publ ished by

t he Harpe rs,one of which is upon S anitary Living .

Th i s she means to make “ the work of her l ife .

”

These late r books are more careful ly wri tten than

were the others in t ime stolen from her work as

teacher and le cture r,often afte r midnight, to mee t

demands for copy.

S he i s al so,at t he t ime of wri ting, preparing

a cook-book for working-people , to be sold at

about t he cost of publ ication.

A l l th is t ime she has been writing usefu l arti

c les for t he N ew York W orl d,E xprem,

Times,

D a ily N ews, S tar, E vening P ost , C krist ian U nion,

and o ther papers . S he h as publ ished a se rie s

of most adm irable art icles in H arper’s B azar

,

notably those upon “ Heal th and Comfort for

Girls,

”and Family Living on $5 00 a Year.”

Miss Corson be l ieve s that, t o a great exten t,a

man i s what h i s food make s h im .

JUL IET C ORSON. 3 1

D iet can make him strong or weak , intel l igent or stup id,chaste or proflig at e, sober or drunken, and she wri tes ear

nest ly t o hel p make t he world heal thier and happ ier.

Her article s on D ie t in D i seases of the Ne rv

ous System,

”and he r words about sewer-g as in

homes,ought to be read by eve rybody.

Has not thi s been a busy l ife ! And nearly all

he r important publ ic work has been done in t he last

t en years, done , too , with frai l heal th , and often

in much pain of body,and l ite ral ly under the

doctors’ sentence of death .

Miss Corson’s work has been appreciated abroad

as wel l as at home . The Consu l-General of France

wrote her

I have t he honor t o inform you that the French govern

ment , very much interested by t he great success of your

cooking-school , and wishing t o hel p t he creating of t he

same in some of our principal c i t ies, wri tes t o know thor

oughly t he rules, organizat ion and management of yourestabl ishment.

S imilar requests al so come from Germany,

Hol land,Swi tze rland and o ther countrie s. A

prominen t lady w rites her

You have done a great work t o hel p people with smal l

3 2 JUL I E T C ORSON .

incomes t o l ive bet ter than they would have done i f you had

never been a missionary in t he world . And you have

brought intel l igence in cooking t o t he homes of t he weal thy

t oo, and new ideas as t o l i v ing , every way.

In these days of industrial education , Miss Cor

son at tache s much importance to the teaching of

cookery in t he publ ic schools . She has been en

gaged in eve ry attempt made in that d irection

since the ini tial step was taken in Montreal unde r

he r supe rv ision,and favorable resul ts are already

reported of the lessons given in seve ral local i ties.

The lesson of th i s l ife i s for al l women . Miss

Corson would undoubtedly have succeeded in other

d irections, with the putting forth of the same eu

ergy and abi l i ty.

A Christmas story of hers,written for one of

her child favori tes,t he daughte r of a ne ighbor of

Thomas Nast, has been promised il l ustration by

that ve rsat i le gen ius . S he i s somewhat of an art ist

herse lf,an enthusiastic love r of music

,and an

arden t student of the harmon ic myster ie s of

Wagner.

Bette r fel t even than Miss Corson’s admirable


and essential work,i s the influence of he r refined

,

gentle nature and earnest personal l ife . A lways

a student, she has been the friend of the cul tured ;

poor at one period, she has been the friend and

helper of the poor. Her chee rful home with he r

pe ts,her great S t. Bernard dog, Teddy her

Angora cat,and Prince A laddi n he r white Pe rsian

,

i s an invi ting place,where friends from al l over

the country are made welcome .

And now,unable to lecture on accoun t of i l l

heal th,he r physical inactivi ty tends to menta l ac

t ivity, and permits her to put he r experience into

wri tten words which can reach thousands,where he r

spoken words could reach but hundreds. Th is i s

the si lver l in ing,I suppose

,

”she says cheerful ly

,

and she adds

If I am laying up any reward for mysel f I hope i t maycome in t he shape of strength t o complete my work, as ye tonly out l ined .

CHAPTER I I.

MARY LOU ISE BOOTH.

ALE N T does not always make a home de

l igh tful,nor a character lovable . N0 one ,

save Boswell, though t the great Johnson attract ive

for dai ly compan ionsh ip, and Jane Welsh Carlyle

found C raig g enpu t t och cheerle ss. But where t al

en t and taste combin e , whe re swee tne ss and

strength round out a characte r,where the grace

of love and t he digni ty of mind uni te, the re one

obtain s re st and companionship.

In t he upper part of N ew York, there i s one of

those ideal homes,wel l-known the se many years

to those who fol low l i terature and art . I ts owner,

Miss Mary L. Booth , i s a woman in middle l ife ,

who,though in independent ci rcumstances, is proud

to labor,and bel ieves in so doing l ike al l sensible

Americans. Does she remain in he r dain ty and

34

36 MARY LOU ISE BOOTH.

fathe r. S O e age r for books was she that be fore

she was ten she had read Hume , Gibbon, A l i son

and other h istorians.

I t was not probable that such a girl would grow

up frivolous and use less, fi t only to exhibi t fine

gowns upon . Rather such a girl would become

t he companion of educated men ; a noble mem

ber of socie ty. I t was fortunate he r parents saw

that a woman must be ve ry considerably educated

if she would accompl i sh anyth ing important and

noteworthy ; that the education of the usual board

ing-school would not answer ! she must be given

such as a young man rece ives at our best col lege s.

Her taste s incl ined her toward t he study of

the languages and the natural science s, and i n

these directions she worked earnestly, in con

nect ion with general train ing.

I t was not at al l strange that she began to write

early for publ ication . With a fathe r able to sud

port her,she yet enjoyed earn ing money for

herse lf. What girl possessing both force and

independence of characte r doe s not enjoy money

that has come to he r from her own effo rt !

M ARY L . BO O TH .

MARY LOUISE BOOTH. 39

With a remarkable knowledge of French and

German , such as a lover of those tongues would

gain in enthus iastic and dil igent study,from seven

years o f ag e to womanhood, Miss Booth natural ly

turned to t he congen ial work of making t ransla

t ions of the finer l iterature of both languages

thus putting her readiest knowledge to use first .

Among he r earl ie st translat ions were Mery’s

Andre’

C kenier, Victor Cousin’s Life and I imes of

M adame de C/zevreuse,Marmier’s Russian Tales

,

and Edmond About’s Germaine,and King of tke

A l l th is was close hard work for a young

woman, but M iss Booth never sought nor wished

for easy or trifl ing tasks. L igh t labor never

deve lops characte r,and the deve lopment of thought

and characte r i s surely the great purpose of both

l i terature and l ife .

One day a friend suggested to her that a hist ory

of New York City would be of great use and ben

efit in schools,and as a comple te one had neve r

been written,i t might be wise for her to attempt

i t. Many a trained l ite rary man would have been

40 MARY LOU ISE BOOTH.

de te rred by the necessary l abor but an ene rge t ic,

educated girl , what could de ter her! S he was

thorough , by al l he r habits, al so accurate,patien t

and persevering ; an essential equipment if one

would wri te histo ry.

Turne r said he had “ neve r known any genius

but that of hard work,

” a statement that most suc

cessful worke rs have found to be true . Miss

Booth not only had no dread of toi l,but she was

possessed of a wil l and a wi sh to do on ly noble

and important work. S ti l l,would she not tire O f

thi s task when she Should find how long,how

slow,was even the preparation for doing i t !

Well,she d id not t ire

,though she worked for

years at gathering toge the r he r mate rials search

ing publ ic and private libraries, talking with l it

erarians about books,talking with spe cia l ists and

ant iquarians about events, date s and local i tie s,

talking with statesmen and publ ic-minded men

abou t the s ignificance of thi s act , that pol icy, and

a mul titude of occurrences and enterprise s. To

be sure her pleasant manners and he r scholarly de

vot ion made this comparat ively pleasurable work .

MARY LOU ISE BOOTH. 4 1

Those who possessed the knowledge she sought

he lped hergladly,appreciat ing her intention to do

thorough work,and

,above all

,he r patient and

careful preparat ign for i t. Then fol lowed the

slow toils of s ifting, of comparing and col lat ing.

A l l th i s before she wrote the first page of he r

manuscript.

A t the publi sher’s suggestion the small school

hi story first proj ected was laid aside,and only

se rved as the pre l iminary study for a large octavo

volume of about a thousand page s,which was the

first complete History of New York City eve r pub

l ished. The reception of the book everywhere

was cordial . The style was clear, graphic ; s imple

as i s al l good writing. Second and th ird edition s

soon appeared ; the last one , i n 1880,brough t

down to date . A large pape r edi tion of one hun

dred autograph copies was also published,so

popular was the work, and book- col lectors eu

larg ed the ir copie s with portrai ts and autograph

on interleaved pages .

One copy,extended to n ine volumes of seve ral

thousand maps,le tte rs

,and i l lustrat ion s

,is owned

42 MA RY LO U ISE BOOTH .

i n New York . A col lector in Chicago has ex

tended h is to twen ty- t wo volume s. Miss Booth

has i n her l ibrary a large paper copy presen ted

to her by an eminen t bibliofi ilist , which con

tain s over two thousand il lustrat ion s on inse rted

leaves .

What should she do nex t ! for such a young

woman has no thought of stopping her work wi th

one great success . Her publ ishers proposed that

she should go abroad and write popular h istories

of London, Paris, Berl in and Vienna,but the

Civi l W ar came,and i ts matters soon fi l led her

mind .

She was most earnestly opposed to all the ideas

and outcomes of slave ry. Her brother,a mere

youth,had entered t he army. Could she not he lp

al so,i n the cause of l iberty !

Just at th i s time she rece ived an advance copy

of Coun t Agenor de Gasparin’s Upm

’

sing of a Grea t

P eop le. S he took i t at once to Mr. Sc ribner and

urged him to publ ish a translation ; but he told her

the war would probably be over before there was

time to bring it out. Final ly he said that if the

44 MARY LOU ISE BOOTH .

volumes by Augustin Cochin,Resul ts of E mancipa

t ion,andResul ts of S lavery. Later

,she transla ted

Laboulaye’s F airy Ta les, Jean Mace’s F airy B ook

,

which were publ ished by Harpe r Brothers,

and seve ral of the books of t he Countess de Gas

parin,including C amille

,Vesper, and H uman S or

rows. One book-case in he r large l ibrary con tains

some forty volume s of her own translating. What

an amount of work from a single pen ! More

recently she has translated Labou laye’

s later fai ry

tale s,beautiful ly il lustrated .

Af te r t he close of the war, her next great task

was to translate six volumes of Henri Martin ’s

U nabridg ed .History of F rame,and then in con

nect ion with Miss A lger,the h istorian ’s abridg

ment of t he large h istory. On the l ibrary wal l s

of Miss Booth’s home are t he kind faces of these

Frenchmen,Henri Martin

,Gasparin, and Labou

laye,i n company with Jul ia Cameron ’s beautifu l

autotype of Tennyson, and the portrai ts of D ick

ens,A l ice Cary and other ce lebrities.

In 1867 the Harpers desired to star t a new

family journal,and they asked Miss Booth to

MARY LOUISE BOOTH . 45

become the editor. She hesi tated to assume so

great a re sponsibi l i ty,al so involving dai ly and sys

t emat ic labor throughou t the year ; but, accept ing,

she proved her fi tness for t he work . Harper’s

B azar soon reached an immense circu lat ion , paying

i ts wayfrom the first,a thing unusua l in j ournal ism .

For more than nine teen years Miss Booth has made

this paper bright,fre sh

,pure

,rel iable , sensib le , and

a great success. I ts corps of contributors has in

cluded t he leading writers of Europe andAmerica.

Meantime her home has been a l i te ra ry centre

for cultured people . Every Saturday evening one

may mee t in her parlors, authors,statesmen , ar

t ist s,the gifted from al l t he profe ssions . The

rooms are cheerful and l ight in color,and the

hostess and he r adopted siste r,Mrs. Anne W .

Wrigh t,are as chee ry as the home th ey brighten .

Here are countle ss tokens of friendship ! vases

from Japan,old s i lve r from Norway ; j ewels from

the neck of the Queen of Montezuma ; unique

things from Mexico and the Indies ; and the hai r

of Shelley,of Keats

,fine and brown

,of Byron

,

dark,and of Leigh Hunt

,in t he same case . The


picture s on the wall s are the gifts of famous

friends .

As we si t i n the back parlor looking through

the handsomest album I have eve r seen,Russia

leather with si lve r clasps,a birthday gift to Miss

Booth from the friends who attend he r Saturday

evening receptions,

“ Muff,

”a grea t Mal te se cat ,

walks in,and apparently enj oys the face s with us .

Th i s seems l ike a bit of Engl ish home- l ife where

a cat i s always a petted member of the family,

e ither in high l ife or among the lowly. In this

album one see s refined Harrie t Pre scott S pof

lord,merry Grace Greenwood

,arti st ic R ichard

Watson Gilder,handsome White law Re id

,bri l

l ian t Mary Mapes Dodge , and scores of others,

each contribu ting an original poem,or words of

appreciation . A great cage of canaries,and a

mocking-bird,i n the window

,he lp to make th i s

New York stone house l ike a bi t of count ry life,

in its k inship with nature . Flowers,too

,te l l that

Miss Booth is as refined as she i s scholarly.

Miss Booth rece ive s a large salary, proving that

a woman beside s making friends and fame can

MARY LOU ISE BOOTH . 47

make money,and th is brings her into striking

contrast wi th the he lpless women who are obliged

to depend upon re latives,largely because they

were not educated in early l ife to be se l f-depend

en t,and were not brought up to have a special

pursui t or some defini te and engrossing aim .

Miss Booth,notw i thstanding her constant work

7within dai ly confines of “office hours

,

’not wit h

s tanding the many—sided superintendency devolv

i ng on her,notwi thstand ing t he outgoes of vi tal i ty

into the work of originat ing, criticis ing, deciding

upon and bringing into symmetry the plans and

de tai ls of a great, brigh t weekly journal , has

excel lent heal th . Probably her daily and syste

matic labor i s one secre t of thi s heal th . For i t is

now admitted that where the mind is ful ly and

regu larly O ccupied and exercised,the body is in

far be tter condit ion . She has had but one serious

i l lness since she was a ch i ld,a rheumat ic feve r

which she th inks she could have avoided with

a l i ttle care and less confidence in he r impreg

nable good heal th . Her mother i s sti l l l iving in

supe rb heal th,a handsome old lady with spark

48 MARY LOUIS E BOOTH.

l ing black eyes and unwrinkled face,i n her e ighty

sixth year,residing in Brooklyn

,with Mrs. King,

Miss Booth’s only siste r. Th i s mothe r comes from

a long- l ived family. He r grandmothe r was born

in 1 744 and died in 1844, a century old , re tain

ing her facul tie s to the end . I remember when

a child , says Miss Booth,

“ hearing her te l l of

t he days when t he country was covered wi th for

e sts. swarming with wild beasts and game , and

th ickly populated with Indians,for she was grown

at the t ime of the French and Indian war,and

married at the Revolutionary epoch . How young

i t makes our country seem thus to stre tch hands

to t he middle of the eighteenth century, and to

have stood face to face with those who knew t he

primeval fores t !

I t i s easy to des ire Miss Booth’s success for

one’s se l f,i s i t not ! But how many women

would be wi l l ing to start upon the years of nu

t iring toi l that has gained i t ! How many would

se rve he r apprenti ce ship ! Le t us review the

de tai l s of her work simply as an editor

For n ine teen years Miss Booth has been habit

MARY LOUISE BOOTH. 49

nal ly at the B azar office from 9 A . M . to 4 P . M .

dai ly,usual ly taking a l igh t lunch in t he ofiice ;

pe rmitting herse lf on ly a brief vacation at mid

summer. Every l ine of manuscript in t he pape r,

and i ts proof,is read by her. Eve ry i l lustrat ion

i s scrutinized by her. You can see that she can

have had few playtimes,and that her work must

be thoroughly systematized ; no time wasted in

looking up what has been done or what remain s

to do .

“ Editorial work,”she says,

“ l ike woman ’s,

is neve r done ; and the planning of wh ich i t

large ly consists goe s on day and n ight wi thout

inte rruption . I t i s not what t he editor w ri te s,but

what he choose s for h is paper,that makes or

mars h is success . I t i s the j udicial capaci ty that

marks the true editor.” She has shown herse lf

to possess the rare talents that go to make suc

cessful ed itorship ! a comprehensi ve outlook as to

t he needs of a cu l tivated people,varie ty of method

,

wel l-nigh unerring j udgment,and a capacity for

hard labor.

To work for the world and not to become

soured by i ts indifference,to have strong convie


tions and ye t be chari table toward those who

th ink differently, to correct the faul ts of humanity

without bi tterness or personal i ty,to keep a sub

l ime hope ih one’s heart,to be as unostentati ous

as though she were unknown to fame,and to do her

work as thoroughly and regu larly as though she

depended on her labor for her daily bread— all

the se lessons be long with Miss Booth’s public

work .

To Show othe r women that a woman mayhave

consummate abi l i ty,and ye t be gentl e and refined

and warm-hearted,that she can be accurate ,

prompt,and thorough

,and ye t think out beyond

t he thousand de tai l s of eve ryday l ife , reach ing for

al l beauty and grace,and that i f one woman can

stand at t he head of a great j ourna l i t must be

logical ly true that other trained wom en may come

to stand at t he head of t he business they se lect

the se,too

,are publ ic lessons of a l ife and a char~

acte r worthy of study by our noblest girl s.

52 F RANC E S E . WI L LA RD .

sent sprigs of evergreen from the old tree in front

of t he early Wil lard home in Oberl in . Joseph

Cook sen t Congratu lations to the mother on the

daughter’s l ife,

and to the daughter on t he

mothe r’s ” Mr. Moody, Roswel l Smith of t he

C ent ury M ag azine, Dr. Vincent, Maria M i tche ll,

and hundreds of othe rs,sent chee ring words.

No one of al l t he company was so proud and

glad as Frances . N o one knew, so we l l as ~

she,

how this good mother who had toi led for he r three

chi ldren,was deserving of th i s honor. And ye t

i t come because the noble daughte r, by he r own

l ife,had made the mothe r known to the world .

Miss Wi llard has had t he rich bless ing of Ch ri s

t ian parentage . Not al l who gai n success are so

fortunate,and yet i t i s rare to find eminence

where there has not been a t least an able mothe r

and of h igh principles. Her ancestry en rol ls

names of many who have toi led for t he publi c

good . One of t he Wil lards was a president of

Harvard Col lege , another a pastor of t he Old

South Church in Boston,and st il l anothe r the

wel l-known educator,Emma Wil lard of Troy,

FRANC E S E . WILLARD. 53

N . Y. Miss Wi l lard’s great-grandfather was a

ministe r a t Keene,N . H .,

for forty years,and

a chapla in i n t he Revolutionary W ar.

Her father,a native of Vermon t

,and a promis

ing young busine ss man,afte r marrying an int e lli

gen t girl,al so a teacher, started We stward t o found

a home The daughter,Frances El izabe th

,was

born at Churchvil le,near Roche ste r

,N . Y. When

she was two years old, the young parents moved

to Oberl in,Ohio

,where for five years they both

devoted themse lves to study,and then bought a

large farm at Janesvi lle,W is. ,

cal led Forest

HHome . Here for twe lve years the girl basked

in the sunsh ine of nature and heal th . She says

of herse l f !

“ Reared in the country,on a Weste rn farm

,I

was absolute ly ignorant of tigh t shoes,corse ts or

extinguishe r bonne ts . Clad during three fourths

of the year in flanne l sui ts,not unl ike those worn

at gymnastics now by young lady col legians,and

Spending most of my time in t he O pen air,the

companion in work as wel l as in sport of my only

brother, I knew much more about handl ing rake

54 FRANC E S E . WILLARD.

and hoe than I d id of frying-

pan and needle ;

knew t he name and use of eve ry implement han

dledby carpenter and j oine r ; could herd the sheep

al l day and never t ire was an enthusiasti c poul try

rai se r ; and by means of this natural out-door l ife,e igh t or n ine hours sleep in twenty- four, a sensible

manner of dress,and the plain fare of bread and

butter,vegetables

,eggs

,milk

,fru it and fowl , was

enabled to store up electric ity for the t ime to

come .

We three chi ldren were each promised a l ibrary

to cost one hundred dollars apiece if we would

not touch t ea or coffee t i l l we became of ag e .

Subsequently I u sed both for years,ve ry moder

ate ly,but have now entirely discarded them . A

physician was almost an unknown visi tant to our

home .

”

The common-sense mothe r said,

“ Le t a gi rl

grow as a tree grows— according to i ts own swee t

wil l .”

Forest Home,says France s

,was a queer

old cottage with rambl ing roof, gables, dormer

windows,and l i ttl e porches, crann ies, and out-of

F RAN C E S E W ILLARD .

FRANC ES E . WILLARD. 57

the-way nooks, scattered here and there . The

blufis, so characte ri sti c of Wisconsin, rose about

i t on the right and left. The beaut iful Rock

R ive r flowed at t he west side ; to the east a prai rie

stre tched away to mee t the horizon,ye l low with

grain in summe r,fieecywith snow in t he winter.

But there were al l sorts of inte l lectual feasts in

thi s p lain home . Frances,and her love ly sister

,

Mary,each not far from twelve years of ag e,

organized an “Artist’s C lub of two. They would

lead up the wil l ing goat,put pann iers on h is back,

packed with lunch and a bottle of spring wate r,

and then with two shepherd dogs in the proces

sion,wander off to the rive r bank where they

would ske tch the whole day long. Some times

the frol icsome girls tried “ to train a calf in to a

r iding-horse,

” but were not rewarded with great

success in thi s nove l unde rtaking. At other times

they caught Jack,

a favorite horse , among the

haze l bushes and enj oyed a horseback ride .

At fou rteen when a new schoolhouse was bui l t

in the ir local i ty,Frances went to school for the

first t ime,the parents and a bright young lady in

58 F RANC E S E . WILLA RD.

the family having been her teachers he retofore .

S he writes in her journal

S i ste r and I got up long before l igh t to pre

pare for the first day at school . We put all our

books in mother’s satche l ; had a n ice t i n pai l fu l l

of dinne r. S tood next to Pat O ’Donahue in spe l l

ing, and Pat stood at the head .

”

Next the girls s tarted a newpaper, with poems,

essays and stories . The news must have been

meagre,but such as i t was i t was greatly enjoyed

by the publ ic ; which public consisted of the

father and mother ! A t s ixteen Frances rece ived

a prize from the I l l inoi s Agricul tural Socie ty for

an essay on Country Homes .” Mr. Wil lard was

deeply interested in agricul ture,having been pres

ident of the S tate Society, as wel l as a member of

the S tate Legislature , and was of course pleased

at his daughter’s work and succe ss in this fie ld .

On he r seventeenth birthday she says in her

j ournal ! “ This i s the date of my martyrdom .

Mothe r insists that a t last I must have my hai r

7‘ done up woman fashion . She says she can

hardly forgive herself for lett ing me run wild so

6o FRANC E S E. WILLARD.

beginning of a caree r of work. She had a pleas

ant home,and a father ab le to support her

,but

why need she be dependen t upon him ! Should

she stay at home andwai t for marriage ! No ; she

would earn money for herse lf,and marry or not,

as her heart prompted.

A country school was found near Chicago, i n

which the young teache r began her labors. Then

a posi tion was offered her i n Evanston , as teacher

of natural science in the col lege whence she had

graduated. After thi s, she was cal led to the

Female Col lege at Pit tsburg, Pa.,and late r on

became Preceptress in Genesee Wesleyan Semi

nary at Lima, N. Y.

Meantime a great sorrow had come in to her

l ife— the death of the beautiful and gifted siste r

Mary ; and a few years late r, the father and only

brother,Ol ive r, d ied , and Frances and he r mother

were left alone .

While teaching i n Pi ttsburg, Miss Wil lard wrote

her first book,a memo i r of Mary, cal led N ine

t een B eautzful Years, which was publ ished by the

Harpe rs in 1864. This book has made thou

FRANC E S E . WILLARD. 6 1

sands be tte r from reading it,and wil l continue to

do its e levat ing work in the years to come . A new

edit ion has late ly been brought out with an intro

duction by t he poe t Wh i tt ier.

In 1 868,a great b l ess ing came to Miss Wil lard .

Her friend,Kate A. Jackson , took her abroad for

three years as her guest. They travel led in

nearly eve ry European country. In Greece and

Palest ine and Asia Minor they found much , t o

s tudy and enjoy. They cl imbed the pyramids

and visited the treasures of art in I taly and Ger

many. While absen t Miss Wil lard devoted more

than a year to study in the Col lege de France

and the Peti t S orboune, attending the lecture s of

Guizot,the h istorian

,and othe r famous men ; she

al so studied in Berl in and Rome . He r train ing

went constantly on . Wheneve r she could com

mand t ime she wrote article s for the N ew York

Independent , Harper’s M ont/zly, C krist ian U nion and

the Chicago journals . I t was probable , of course ,

that a girl who thus preferred work to pleasure,

would become a successful woman .

On her return home,a new poin t of departure

62 FRANC ES E. WILLARD .

almost immediate ly confronted her. She spoke

before a Woman’s Missionary Meet ing upon the

Christian work done abroad , and so impressed

was a prominen t gentleman with her abi l i ty as a

speaker, that he proposed to he r that she shou ld

give a lecture,promising her a large and appre

ciat ive audience . Hesitat ing much to try he r

powe rs,she laid t he matter before her mothe r

,

asking if she should accept. “ By al l means,my

ch i ld,

” said she ; enter eve ry open door.”

“ At the expirat ion of three weeks,and wi th

no manuscript visib le,

” says Miss Wil lard,I ap

peared before an e legant audience in Centenary

Church,Chicago . The manuscript was wi t h me

in portfol io,ready for reference in case of fai lure

,

bu t I didn’t fail .

” So pleased were the people

and the newspape rs, that she at once rece ived invi

t at ions to lecture from al l parts of the Northwes t.

Honors now came fast and th ick. In 187 1 she

was made Pres ident of the Woman’s Col lege at

Evanston,her A lma Mater

,and two years late r,

when the col lege became a part of the U niversi ty,

she was made Dean of this col lege, and Profe ssor


of [Esthe tics in the U n iversi ty. She adop ted a

plan of se l f-government for the pupi ls, nove l then ,

but since used,substantial ly

,at Amherst Col lege

and elsewhere . When anygirl had shown herse l f

worthy,she entered a

“ Rol l of Honor Socie ty,

and if he r record was good for a specified time,

she j oined the “ corps of the se lf-governed with

a pledge to act her best. Miss Wil lard, the

teacher,has proved an inspirat ion to more than

two thousand pupils ; her always recurring ques

t ion to them be ing, W /za t are you g oing to be in

tke world, andwka t areyou g oing to do 7

In t he winter of 1 873 the re was a remarkable

uprising of the Christ ian women of the land,

known and remembered as the Temperance Cru

sade . Tens of thousands,in praying-bands

, vis

it ed the sal oons,and awoke the whole coun try to

the peri l of a drinking habi t well-nigh un iversal,

and to the sin of the l iquor traffic.

Miss Willard was asked to join the movement.

She was al ready a succe ssful teacher,author and

lecture r. Would she now please give up l iterary

and educational reputat ion,and the bri l l ian t pros

64 F RANC E S E . WILLARD.

peets of he r l ife , and enter upon a lowly and un

popular work ! Bette r than art or l i te rature she

had always loved t o see a human be ing he lped

upward . S he once hadsaid,“The deepest though t

and desire of my l ife would have been me t,if my

dear old Mother Church had pe rmitted me to be

a mini ste r.’ Yes, she was immediat elv andwhol ly

ready to aid the temperance women .

S he was made the National Corre sponding

Secretary of the movement,and at once began

the work that has been an aston ishment in i ts

breadth and a blessing to hundreds of thousands .

Her grand facul ty for organization deve loped and

made i tse lf manifest. She de termined to herself

to v i si t and speak in every town in the U nited

S tates wh ich numbered ten thousand inhabi tants

she afte rward in cluded many of five thousand,

i n order to organize a Woman’s Christian Tem

perance U n ion in each if i t had not one al ready.

W as th i s a possibi l i ty ! She had l i t tle money

and a constitution not robust. But she had what

was bette r,a heroic purpose

,and great fai th in

God working with man.


F or ten years she spoke, on an average , once a

day, staying at Res t Cottage only three weeks

during each year ; sen t ou t in t he late r years

t wenty or th i rty thousand let te rs ; trave l led some

years,from twenty-five thousand to thirty thou

sand mile s,accompan ied by her invaluable private

secre tary,Miss Anna Gordon , whom she truly

cal l s her “ right arm,writ ing nearly all he r

speeche s and articles for the press on the cars .

The wonde r i s that she i s not a broken-down

woman,which indeed she doubt less would be

were i t not for her sunny disposition,her common

sense , her power of hold ing herself at an even

pace,and nature’s early gifts and endowments in

the free l ife at Fore st Home .

She herself says ! “ The chief wonder of my

life i s that I dare to have so good a time, physi

cal ly,mental ly and re l igiously. I have swung

l ike a pendulum through my years ‘ without haste,

without rest.’ What i t would be to have an id le

hour I find i t hard to fancy. With no headache

why should I not think righ t straight ahead !”

I t i s large ly through Miss Wil lard’s efforts that

66 FRANC E S E . WILLARD .

i n the whole thirty-e igh t S tates and n ine Terri

tories,W. C . T. U .

’s have been organized . In ten

thousand towns and ci tie s a great body of women

are at work to make l iquor-se l l ing and l iquor

drinking,with the ir consequent ruin to men and

the i r famil ie s, hateful and disreputable before the

world. Especial ly have t he people of the South

become enthusiast ic over the settlement of the

temperance question . Miss Wil lard has made

four campaigns i n that great sect ion of our coun

try since 1880 and has been welcomed in to the

most important pulp i ts,and sustained by those in

the h ighest posit ions.

The Woman’s National Organizat ion has now

over th irty departments. I t has for its organ the

U nion S ignal , a bright sixteen-page weekly pape r,

with a large subscription l ist. In twenty S tate s,

temperance text-books have been in troduced into

t he publ ic-schools by law. The press departmen t

reache s over one thousand papers, and sends out

annual ly over five mill ion pages of printed matte r.

The W. C . T. U . has commissioned Mrs . Mary C .

Leavitt, of Boston , to j ourney round the world

68 FRANC E S E . WILLARD.

n ine ti l l six, with a half-hour for d inner, and anothe r

hal f-hour for exercise in the open air.

A wel l-known lady in Evanston,Miss Wi l lard’s

home,write s me conce rn ing her ! To human 0b

se rvation,here

,Frances Wil lard i s without fault.

Her l iberal ity i s unbounded,or would be if he r

purse were as big as her heart. He r own private

expenditure s she reduces to a minimum,going

without what she actual ly needs,i n orde r that

those i n want may neve r be refused .

I n he r immense and ever- increasing correspon

dence,the re are the usual number of cranks and

bore s. But every le tter i s answered,and cour

t eously. When remonstrated with on account of

the time and strength i t takes,she repl ie s

,

‘ I l ike

to have them write to me . I want to ge t at the

tempe rance work in every possible way, and at

the heart s of people . Perhaps i t chee rs some

poor sou l to write to me and g e t a reply. Le t us

C omfort one another al l we can.

’

Anothe r prominent lady write s Miss Wil lard’s

l ife wil l bear the closest scrut iny. So conscien

t ious is she in her correspondence for the Nationa l

FRANC E S E . WILLA RD. 69

Socie ty that al togethe r she sometimes has ten

secre tarie s at work ; even an enve lope o r a shee t

of paper i s neve r wasted . This canno t a lways be

said of men i n the Government or Church or M is

sionary employ! She i s heart and

sou l and body, given, a l iving sacrifice,to the

work of saving men. She invi tes to her home

those who have been overcome by temptation .

Rare ly is a social invitation accepted,al though

invited by the best and the grea test,unle ss i t be

where she can do some work. S he i s a marve l lous

woman,great

,and wil l be greater.’ She rece ive s

no remunerat ion from the Socie ty except that i t

furnishes postage and stati one ry.

Al ready,thanks to t he energ y of Mrs. T. B .

Carse,large ly

,a bu i lding is i n prospect in Chicago

with lecture hal l,Tra in ing School for women in

t he temperance work and National headquarte rs

for the W . C . T. U . A mil l ion dollars is needed ,

and some pe rson wil l ye t give th is gift. The Tem

perance Hospi tal was O pened Apri l 8 , 1886, oppo

site Chicago U niversi ty. Both sexe s and all

classe s are to be treated without the use of alco

70 FRANC E S E . WI LLARD.

hol,the statistics of the large London Tempe r

ance Hospital proving that a much larger pe r

cen t. of patien ts recover without al cohol than with

i t. One woman,Mrs. R. G. Peters of Michigan ,

g ave fifty thousand dol lars to th is work . A medi

cal col lege and free d ispensary are to be opened

in connection with i t. Dr. Mary Weeks Burne tt

i s president of t he Board of Trustee s.

The White Cross League,insti tu ted by the

Bishop of Durham,in England

,pledging equal

puri ty for man and woman,bids fai r to be one of

Miss Wil lard ’s grandest l ine s of work . S he has,

with al l her othe r labors,been wri t ing some exce l

len t article s to girl s,i n t he C kautauguan, on the

subject,

“ How to W in.

” She says !

Keep t o your special ty , whether i t is ra ising turnips ortunes ; paint ing screens or battle p ieces ; studying pol i ti caleconomy or domes t i c rece ipts. Have in place of

aimless reverie , a resolu te aim . The first one in t he id lestream of my l i fe was t he purpose, lodged there by my l ife’sbes t friend. my mother, t o Izave an educat ion.

gare t Ful ler O S S O li was ano ther fixed po int—shal l I not

rather say a fixed s tar! - in t he sky of my thought, wh i leA rnold of Rugby, t o one who meant t o make teaching a

profession, was chief of al l .

FRANC E S E . WILLARD. 7 1

“ If my dear mother did me one crowning kindness itwas in making me bel ieve that next t o be ing an angel , t hegreates t bestowment of God is t o make one a woman.

If I were asked t he m ission of t he ideal woman, I would

reply, I t is t o make t/ze wkole world komel ike. S he

came into t he col lege and elevated i t , into l i terature and

hal lowed i t , into t he bus iness world and ennobled i t. S he

wi l l come into government and puri fy i t, for woman wi l l

make homel ike every p lace she enters, and she wi l l enter

every place on this round earth.

”

Miss Wil lard has come to he r grand success

ch iefly because of a h igh purpose . Life has been

fo r her a constant work-day since she sketched

with Mary by the r iverside at Fore st Home , and

eve ry day has to ld upon t he future of our people .

For constantly working in advance of al l party

l ines, she has helped more than any othe r woman

first to make a great i ssue and then to hasten i t

in to nat ional consideration.

CHAPTER IV.

M RS . o . R. ALDE N

AM going to write a ske tch of I said

to one of the young ladie s i n our Publ ic

Library,

“and I would l ike to take several of he r

books home , to look them over.”

There are none in,

” she repl ied.

None in , when I see by your catalogues you

have seve ral of each of he r more than fif ty vol

umes !”

“Oh ! there is one in— M rs. Harry Harper’s

Awakening , but that wil l probably be taken out

during t he day.

“What i s the reason ‘ Pansy’s ’ books are al

ways in demand !”

“ Because they are bright reading for young

people,and as pure as they are brigh t

,and we

l ike to special ly recommend them. When hun

72

M RS . G. R. ALDE N (“ PANSY ” 73

dreds come to us, and ask what they shal l read,

among those of the few unexceptionable writers we

can always speak we l l of the Pansy books,

’and

the boys and girl s a lways come back pleased, and

ask for o thers by that author.”

What i s true of “ the Pansy books,i n the Pub

l ic L ibrary of Cleve land, I doubt not to be true of

them in the l ibrarie s Of other ci ties.

I have just been reading Mrs . A lden ’s O ne C om

monp lace Day. I have been with poor Kate Hart

ze l l to the p icn ic, and fe l t ashamed of Fann ie

Copeland,or any othe r girl who is too proud to

assoc iate with a noble-hearted young woman be

cause She helps to wash dishe s and make bread.

I have fe l t a great l iking for Mildred Powe rs,who

,

though her father was a judge a t Wash ington,

put on no a i rs,andwas thoroughly kind to every

body. I have fol lowed Kate to the home of the

drunken father and d runken col lege-brothe r,and

have seen how a girl real ly can be a ministe ring

angel . I unde rstand,I think

,the reasons for t he

pe rennial popularity of the “ Pansy books .” They

waken the music of the noble chords of the soul .

74 M RS . G. R . ALDEN (“ PANSY ”

In the ir influence , as compared with that of the

usual Sunday-schoo l book,or work of l ight fiction

,

l ie s t he d ifference that exists be tween waltz and

o ratorio.

I t was years ago that I read E ster Rica’

,and

cried ove r Este r’s death , as I suppose thousands

of others have done . Afte r that I was always

wondering how the author of that most magical

book talked and looked and i f I should like he r if

I eve r saw her.

O ne day I heard that“ Pansy was to conduct

the primary departmen t of the Sunday-school

Assembly a t F ramingham, Mass. So I went ou t

from Boston to hear her.

When I arrived,I found a crowded house l is

tening to a sweet- faced woman,in early l ife

,much

younge r than I had supposed,with a rich

,pleasan t

voice,heard in eve ry part of the house

,and wi th

a most attractive and womanly manne r. She was

natural , inte rest ing and earnest. I t i s unneces

sary to add that I l iked her.

And now what has been the history of this ve ry

successful woman !

M RS . G. R. ALDEN 7 7

Born i n Rochester,N. Y.

,in 1842 , she had two

blessings, perhaps the greate st earthly gifts a

father and mother who were wise , patien t, tende r,

helpful unde r all c ircumstances. The fathe r held

wonde rful ly pronounced convictions on al l the great

que stions of the day ; he was a strong temperance

man,a strong anti-slave ry man

,a leade r in every

moral reform,and pressing forward alone often

times,for public opin ion was not educated up t o

his standard,whereas now he would have hosts of

co-labore rs . The noble man standing sol itary upon

advanced posi tions,upon high lone ly look-outs

,

l ived half a cen tury ahead of his t ime . The

mothe r was a sunny-hearted,se lf-forgetfu l woman ,

devoted to al l that was pure and of good report .”

Their l i t tle girl , I sabella, rece ived her now

famous name of Pansy,” from an inciden t in her

baby- life . The mothe r had a choice bed of grea t

purple and ye l low pansy blossoms,whi ch she was

treasuring for a spe cial occasion . O ne morning

the wee chi ld,be ing in a helpful

,loving mood

,

sal l ied out,and picked them every one

,and bring

ing the treasures in her arms showe red them in

78 M RS . c . R. ALDEN

he r mothe r’s lap,with the gene rous statement

that they were every one for her.”

They we re to have been used on the evening

fol lowing,and the good mother was much d is

t urbed ; but the fathe r mounted his baby in tri

umph on his shoulde rs,and cal led her his own

l ittle pansy-blossom ; and from that t ime t he swee t

name clung to he r.

Thus gentle was the man of strong though t,

over a thing that could not be helped,and wh ich

was done in innocency. A le ss though tful parent

migh t have pun ished the child,and then wondered

as she grew older that she did not deve lop love l ie r

trai ts ! How often we spoil the flowers in our

home gardens !

A l it t le inciden t which I have heard Mrs. A lden

re late,shows not only t he love with in that early

home,but the ski l l of t he fathe r i n the character

forming of his ch ild .

“ I recal l,

” said she,

“a

certain rainy day, when I hovered aimlessly from

si tting-room to kitchen,al ternate ly watch ing my

father at hi s writing, and my mother at he r cake

making. She was baking, I remembe r, a ce rtain

M RS . G. R. ALDE N 79

sort known among us as ‘ pat ty-cakes,

’ with scal

loped edges,and rai sins peeping out al l over the ir

puffy sides. I put in an earnest plea for one of

the ‘ pattie s ’ as i t came from the oven , and was

refused . D isconsolate ly I wande red back to

father’s side . He was busy with h is annual ac

counts.

Our home was in a manufacturing town,whe re

the system of exchange,known as

‘ due-bil ls,

’

was in vogue . Something caught my eye which

suggested t he term to me,and I asked an expla

nat ion.

“ Father gave i t br iefly. Then I wanted to

know whether people always earned the amoun t

mentioned in t he due-bil l,and my father repl ied

that of course one had the right to issue a due

bi l l to a man who had earned nothing,if for any

reason he desired to favor h im,and that then the

sum would become that man’s due,because of the

name signed.

“ I remember the doleful tone i n which I said,

I wish I had a due-bil l .’ My fathe r laughed,tore

a bi t of paper from his note-book,and printed on

80 M RS . G. R . ALDE N

i t in letters which his six-year-old daughte r could

read,the words

D EA R M O TH E R

P L E A S E G I V E O U R L I TT L E G I R L A P ATTY

C AKE F O R M Y S AKE. F ATH E R.

“ I carr ied my due-bi ll i n some doubt to my

moth e r,for she was not given to changing her

mind , but I can seem to see the smile on her face

as she read the note, and fee l again the pressure

of the plump warm cake which was promptly

placed in my hand .

“ The inciden t took on special sign ificance from

the fact that I gave i t another appli cat ion, as ch i l

d ren are so apt to do . As I knel t that evening,

repeating my usual prayer ! ‘N ow I lay me down to

sleep ,

’and closed i t with the familiar words ! And

t/zis I askforj esus’sake

,

’ there flashed ove r my mind

t he conviction that th i s peti tion was l ike the ‘ due

bil l ’ which my father had made me to be claimed

because of the mighty name signed . I do not

know that any teaching of my l ife gave me a

stronge r sense of assurance in prayer than th is

apparently trivi al incident.”


Pansy began to wri te l i ttle papers ve ry early

in l ife , which she cal led“ compositions

,

”andwhich

were intended for he r parents only. From he r

babyhood she kept a j ournal where the vari ous

even ts of the daywere detai led for the benefi t of

these same watchfu l paren ts. There could have

been l i ttle that was exciting or nove l i n th i s girl i sh

l i fe,but the ch i ld was thus trained to express he r

thoughts,and to be observing —two good aid s in

her afte r- l i fe . She was also encouraged to send

long printed le tte rs each week to her absen t siste r,

te l l ing her of the home- l ife,and describing pe r

sons and place s . Pansy ” was ve ry happy in al l

this work,st imulated by gentle appreciat ion and

c ri ti cism.

When “ Pansy was perhaps ten years old,one

morning the old clock,which she “ real ly and

t ruly ” supposed regu lated the sun,sudden ly

stopped . Such an even t had neve r before oc

curred . She cons idered it worthy of a specia l

chronicle,and forthwith wrote the story of its

h itherto useful l ife,and the di sasters which m ight

have resul ted from i ts fai lure in duty. This clock

82 M RS . G. R. ALDE N

was ve ry dear to the father and mothe r,be ing as

sociat ed with the beginning of the i r early married

l ife . When Pansy’s story was read , she was star

t led, almost frightened, ove r th is d iscove ry that

i t drew tears to her fathe r’s eyes . He said he

would l ike to have the story i n prin t, the be tter to

preserve i t,and that she might Sign to i t the name

of “ Pansy,” both because that was h is pe t name

for her,and because the language of the flower

was“ tende r and pleasan t thoughts,

”and these

she had given him by her story.

How pleased the l i ttle girl was that she had

made him happy,and that when a real story of

hers was i n black-and-white where t he world

could read i t,none would know the real author

except t he family. How he r heart beat when the

l i tt le ten-year-o ld author looked upon her firs t

pri nted article,al l those know who have eve r

written for the press.

He r first book,Afelm Lester

,was not publ ished

unti l ten years late r. She wrote i t i n compe tit ion

for a prize,and was so fortunate as to gain i t.

This greatly encouraged her, though her best

84 M RS . G. R. ALDEN

i ts charming sequel, Ckautaugua Girls a t Ifome

,

I ip Lewis and kis Lamp ,Tkree Peop le, Links in

Rebecca’s Life, j ulia Ried, Ru t/z E rskine

’s C rosses

,

I ke King’s Daug /zter, Ike B rowning B oys, F rom

D gfi'

erent S tanapoints, M rs. H arryHarper'

s Awaken

ing , I ke P ocket-M easure

, Spun F rom F act , etc.

ti tle s famil iar in al l Publ ic Librarie s, and to

Sunday-school l ibrarians in al l denominat ion s.

Though S he i s an adept in the arts and pecul iar

fascinations of t he novel ist, a master-analyst of

the subtler workings of the human heart, S he has

from the outse t dedicated herwork to the advance

ment of the Christ ian re l igion in the home- l ife and

i n t he business- life ;’

t o making al ive and impor

tan t and binding and al together love ly,

” the laws

of t he Bible . The gl itte ring prospects of other

fie lds in l i terature have not al lured her aside .

‘

But Mrs . A lden’s books are only a portion of

her l ife-work . Her husband,Rev. G . R. Alden,

i s the pastor of a large church , and S he works

fai thful ly at hi s Side , having a high ideal of t he

dutie s and pecul iar opportun it ie s of a ministe r’s

w i fe . She is president of the missionary soci

M RS . G. R. ALDEN 85

e t ies, organize r and manage r of a young people’s

branch,superintendent of the primary departmen t

of the Sunday-school , and the private counse l lor

of hundreds of young peop le . While she enjoys

he r l i terary work,she makes i t subservien t to her

church and Sunday-school work.

She says,

“My rule has been to wri te when I

can get a chance,subject to the inte rruptions

which come to a mothe r,a housekeepe r

,and a

pastor’s wife .”

Ye t for seven teen years Mrs . A lden has been

under contract (never broken) to keep a serial

story running in the fi fera ld andPresbyter, through

the winte r ; and for ten years She has given he r

summe rs largely to normal-class work at al l the

principal Sunday-school assembl ie s, having been

several t imes at Chautauqua, Framingham and

Florida,and i s unde r engagemen t to do t he same

work in Kansas,Nebraska

,Wisconsin and Ten

h essee .

One would suppose that with al l th is work,

Pansy’s ” hands would be ' ful l t o overflow ing.

But S he finds t ime to do more than this . For twe lve

86 M RS . G. R. ALDEN

years she has prepared the Sunday-school lessons

for the primary department of the W estminster

I kac/zer,the organ of the Presbyte rian Board

,and

has been for two or more years the editor of the ir

And there i s more to tel l. For e leven years

S he has ed ited the P ansy, the wel l-known Sunday

magaz ine for boys and girl s,and there i s always

in this a serial story from her pen and a continued

Golden-Text story,beside s innumerab le Short

stories, which now, col lected, make a complete

Primary Sunday-schoo l L ibrary of abou t forty

volume s.

One of the most inte re sting things in connec

t ion with thi s magaz ine,i s the Pansy Socie ty,

”

composed of those chi ldren who are subscribers,

and who are pledged to try to overcome some

bese tt ing faul t, and who take a whispe r-motto !

I wil l do i t for Je sus’ sake .” A l l who join, have

a badge,a beautiful pansy painted on white satin,

and faste ned at the t Op by a si lver p in.

The members of this socie ty from Maine to

Louisiana,wri te to “ Pansy,

” and mother-fashion,


She answers them,a hundred or more a week .

A l ready there are thousands of membe rs,who are

trying to stop fre tting, to obey paren ts, to be pa

tien t,to sayonly kind words of others, to over

come care lessness, and to make somebody happy.

The amount of good done by th is beautiful , simple

means to form correct habits in early l ife , i s sim

p ly incalculable .

The le tters from the l ittle ones among the mem

bers are ful l of naive interest,many wri t ten with a

hand just beginning to do i ts first work with t he pen .

One olde r chi ld writes

Mamma says I ought t o te l l you a t t he commencement that

I am e leven years o ld, but a poor penman, and she is afrai d

you canno t read my le tter, bu t I wi l l try and do my best. I

have taken I ke P ansy for two years and enjoy i t very much.

A fter reading i t I send i t in a miss ion barrel t o t he chi ldren

in U tah. I had rather keep them , bu t mamma thinks I

ought t o le t some one e lse enjoy them . I have read al l

your books excep t one or two of t he last. From reading

P ocket M easu re I learned how ni ce i t was t o give . Mamma

especial ly l ikes Airs . S olomon S mit/i Looking O n . I would

l i ke t o become a member of t he Pansy Socie ty. I have

tried for a week t o find t he faul t that I want mos t t o over

come, bu t I do not know which one i t is, I have so many ;i t seems t o me as i f everyone e lse had bu t one fau l t. O ne

88 M RS . G. R. ALDE N

is my not obeying qu ickly when mamma speaks. I had

ratherread your books and magaz ine than do what I ought.

I do l ike t o read very much. Ano ther is my temper which

is very qu i ck ; when anything is said which irri tates me I

speak qu i ck even t o my dear mamma. I pray over i t and

work hard to overcome i t. I have a p i cture of you

which papa is go ing t o have framed and hung up in my

chamber, so tha t I can look at i t and think of you.

Le tte rs come,too

,from mothers and teachers,

te l l ing of the beautifu l work of the Pansy Socie

t ie s . O ne mother wri te s of her own home club

formed of he r S ix chi ldren . She says

W e are trying t o make it s influence for good extend far

and near. A t C hristmas we g ot together a large lo t of oldtoys, pi c ture-books, e t c. , with boxes of cake and bon-bons,and sent them t o some poor chi ldren in our communi ty whowere no t able t o buy new ones. W e al so sent a box of

C hristmas goodies t o each of t he real old ladies and g ent lemen l iv ing near us, who were l i kely t o be overlooked int he overflow of young l i fe surround ing them . A lso sent

ou t some sui table presents and eatables t o needy colored

fami l ies.

F or S t. Valent ine’s Day some valent ines were preparedand sent t o such chi ldren as would be l ikely t o be forgottenon this fest i ve occas ion. Ike Pansy has been a regular

vis i tor here for t he past four or five years, and we would

fee l very much as i f one of t he family were gone, If we weredeprived of i t.

M RS . G. R. ALDE N (“ PANSY ” 89

Alden is stil l in the fresh prime of he r

strength . She carri e s he r work with quick step

and sunny uplook . She is so wise and so friendly,

so good an in terprete r le t us be glad that t he

eloquent pen i s a swift one and tire le ss.

CHAPTER V

MARY VIRGINIA TERHUNE (“ MAR ION

0 be a successful write r of nove ls and of

cookery books,the he lpful wife of an emi

nent pastor,a leade r in al l the benevolen t work

and social l ife of a ci ty pari sh, and a most careful

and responsible mothe r, show,to saythe least, great

versat i l i ty of talen t and great executive ab il i ty.

Such a woman is Marion Harland .

”

Born in Amel ia County, Virginia, of a fathe r

descended from Puri tan stock,Samuel Hawes of

Dorchester,Mass .

,and of an equal ly intel l igent

and refined mother, whose ancestorwas the brother

of Captain John Smith , the young girl came natu

ral ly into an inhe ri tance of marked trai ts and t al

ents,ene rgies and convictions .

At ten years of ag e the l i ttle Mary Virginia

was absorbed in Rol l in’s Ancient H istory,having

90

92 MARY v. TE RHUNE (“ MAR ION HARLAND ”

How long have you been wri t ing i t ! he asked .

I wrote the rough draught three years ag o.

Within a year I have wr i tten i t out in full . I

shou ld l ike to publ ish i t.”

S o the manuscript of Alone, a very famous nove l

in its day,was taken to a R ichmond publishe r for

examination . The young author wai ted for days

and weeks and months. Final ly, the fathe r asked

that the manuscrip t be re turned , and with i t came

this note

“ I regre t that the young author’s impatience to

regain possession of he r bantl ing has rendered i t

imposs ible for me to read more than three pages

of the story. From what I kave read,however

,I

j udge that i t wou ld not be safe to publ ish i t on

speculation .

”

M r. Hawes bel ieved in the abi l i ty of his daug h

te r,however

,and at once assumed the expense of

pub l i sh ing. Bring i t out in good style,print ing

and bind ing, he said ;“adverti se i t properly

,and

send bil l s to me .

”

A lone was publi shed when Vi rgin ia was twenty

one , and at once made a genuine and wide sensa

MARY v. TERHUNE (“ MARION HARLAND 93

t ion . I t was a pure and beaut ifu l story,and i t

was written in clear, fine Engl ish Marion Har

land,” for thus She S igned he r l i terary work

,sud

denly found herse lf famous. In less than two

years a Tauchn itz edi tion appeared,and in these

thi rty years S ince ove r one hundred thousand

C op ie s of A lone have been so ld, a record attach

ing to very few books.

The fol lowing year,1855 , a second novel , I ke

.Hidden P a t/z, came from her pen , and that al so

me t wi th a large sale .

Meantime anothe r great happ iness had come

into her l ife . Edward Payson Terhune,the Son

of Judge John Te rhune of New Brunswick, N . J .,

had been l icensed to preach by the Presbytery,

and had accepted a cal l to Charlotte Court House,

Va. This i s a place abounding with h istorical

associations . Here Patrick Hen ry made his las t

public speech and John Randolph his maiden ad

dress. Both these statesmen are buried in the

ne ighborhood. Here , when“ Marion Harland ”

was twenty-three,She came as a bride . The mar

riag e was a love-match , and has brought her a do

94 MARY v . TE RHUNE (“ MARION

mest ic l i fe of unusual happiness. I t is said , i n

proof,that for nearly thirty years, wheneve r Dr.

and M rs. Terhune have been absent from each

other, they have neve r fai led to write dai ly

le tters .

“Marion Harland ” did not lay down her l iter

ary work when she assumed her household and

church dutie s. She merely “ economized time ,”

and found hours for each . In 185 7 , a year after

he r marriage,M oss-S ide was published.

The next year Dr. Terhune was cal led to the

F i rs t Reformed Church in Newark, N . J .,where

he and his family spent eightee n happy and usefu l

years the ir home a centre of de l igh tfu l influences.

The pre tty chi ldren,of whom there were S ix

final ly, evidently did not hinder the mother’s l i te

‘

r

arywork. The writ ing of 1Vemesis, a nove l which

appeared in 1860,was attended by amusing ci r

cumst ances. Mrs . Terhune’s wri ting-table s tood

near a favorite window ; and to the leg of thi s table

She tied one end of a string,the othe r end being

attached to the rai l ing of a cradle,se t in a dark

ened corne r where Baby Chri stine took her long

M ARY V IRG I N I A T E RH U N P ("M \ R IO N

MARY v. TE RHUNE (“ MARION HARLAND 97

forenoon naps. When Baby moved , t he mothe r,

without d istraction of thought, touched the

string.

In 1863 H usks was published ; in 1865 H us

bands and Homes ; in 1867 S unnybank and C/zrist

mas Holly ; i n 1868 Ruby’s H usband, dedicated

To kim w/zo for manyyears kas been to me adviser,

co—worker and best eart/zlyfriend in 1869 Pkemie’s

IZ’mp ta tion ; in 18 70 A t Last ; i n 187 1 T/ze E mp ty

Heart ; in 1 873 j essamine ; seventeen novels in all,

pure,and e levating books which have had a wide

reading.

When Marion Harland was married,friends

thoughtfully be stowed upon her five differen t cook

books. Each was unl ike the others, and often

contrad ictory ; and the more the young house

keeper experimented, t he more perplexed she be

came . At last,however

,as good rece ipts proved

themse lves,she laid them aside for future use.

The se choice and re l iable rece ipts in fifteen

years had grown into a useful col lection. Th ink

ing she might benefit young housekeepers,in 1870,

she visi ted Scribner 81 Co. and offered to them

98 MARY v. TERHUNE (“ MARION

the M S . of he r now world-famous C ommon S e nse in

They hesitated about accept ing.

“ I t wil l not

amount to much , remarked Mr. Scribner to his

partners, i t i s said, but perhaps by taking it we

can obtain a friendly hold upon her and so be

given the publ ishing of her other books.”

But Mari on Harland was al ready known to

the women of the land as a true-minded Chri stian

woman,and they sai d

,

“We can depend upon

what She state s.” I t fol lowed that the sale of the

book was an aston ishment to t he publi shers, and

probably to the author as wel l . S ince i ts publ ication

one hundred and fifty thousand copie s have been

sold in America,and half that number abroad . I t

has been translated into Arabic, French and Ger

man, and a special translation i s soon t o be i ssued

for the use of German res idents in America. Th i s

Mrs. Terhune considers a worthy and precious

success.

Other kindred books have S ince come from

her pen, const itu t ing a Common Sense ” Se rie s !

B reakfast , Lunclzeon and Tea,

and the Dinner

1 00 MARY v. TE RHUNE (“ MAR ION

branches of labor. One “ hard winter they gave

work to more than three hundred sewing-women,

Opening and conducting a store for the sale of g ar

ments made . So ski lfu l was t he managemen t

that while thousands of dol lars were paid out, and

thousands of article s sold,in t he spring a smal l

balance remained in the treasury,even afte r all

the ir generous giving of money.

One incident wil l perhaps i l lustrate “ Marion

Harland’s force of character as we l l as nobil i ty.

In January,1874, She buried one of the most

gifted of he r chi ldren; the“ Ailsie of he r book

entitled M y Lit t le Love. A month before this she

had ruptured a blood-vessel in her righ t lung.

The grief and exci tement of the ch ild’s sudden

dea th resul ted in a hemorrhage , and She was con

fined to her bed . Two days afte r the funeral the

cha irman of the “ cutting-out committee of the

Association,cal led and desired to see Mrs . Ter

hune on pre ssing business. Two hundred women

were at the work-rooms wait ing to re turn home

with work . The treasu ry was empty . The re was

not a yard of material to be cut up. The women

M ARY v. TERHUNE (“ MARION HARLAND

were depending upon this work for bread. What

could be done !

Mrs. Terhune , il l as she was, dete rmined to see

her ; and she has often said that she th inks th i s

visi t saved her reason , and perhaps her l ife . She

was obl iged to forge t he r darl ing ch i ld and th ink

and act for others . She sent her friend to a store

where she had previously made purchases, and

asked that a number of pieces of cloth be deliv

ered immediate ly at the work- rooms.

Then she arose,dres sed herse lf

,took he r car

riag e and drove to the oflice of a kind-hearted

merchant. He came to t he curb- stone and she

stated the case briefly. He cast one look at he r

pale face and her mourning dress,and h is eye s

fi l led w i th tears.

“Wa i t a minute , he said,as he turned back

in to the office .

Re-appearing, be handed her a check for a large

amoun t, and note s to half a dozen weal thy men

which would,he said

,

“ save her voice from the

strai n of te l l ing the story .

”

Within an hour,Mrs. Terhune was making her

1 02 MARY v . TERHUNE (“ MAR ION

way through the rows of anxious sewing-women,

to the hal l where twenty pairs of Shears we re fly

ing through the rol ls of cloth,and laid before t he

treasurer a package of b il l s sufficien t to pay the

poor workers for three weeks,and to provide ma.

ferials for a month’s ope rations. So heroic can a

woman be who has strength of characte r and a

tender heart.

The same winter the Associat ion netted a thou

sand dol lars by a single performance of t he cantata

of TbeHaymakers. The chorus of fiftyvoices, and

the members of t he orchestra gave the ir se rvices ;

but each represented one,or more

,and sometime s

a half-dozen cal l s from the President, but she

found t ime for the work . She often says She has

become an optimist in C hari table undertakings,

for She “ has found people ready to help in every

good work,provided they are approached in the

righ t way. Tact in th i s respect goes as far as

energy .

”

W hile in Newark she taught a large Bible class

of young girl s,and was al so superintendent of the

Infant Department of the Sabbath-school . Afte r

1 04 MARY v . TERHUNE (“ MARION HARLAND ”

God b less them one and al l ! ‘ My boys ’ are

scattered far and near,all over thi s and othe r

lands,but they sti l l write to me

,te l l ing me of

the ir prospects of business and happine ss,ask

congratu lation s when they marry and sympathy

when they bury the ir dead .

”

In Brooklyn, Mrs. Terhune is one of the man

agers of the Train ing School for Nurses,a mem

ber of the Loca l Visit ing Committee of the S tate

Chari tie s’ A id Association,a Vice-Presiden t of a

Musical Association and First D irector of t he

Ladie s Associat ion of her husband’s church .

The b roken blood-vesse l above mentioned did

not heal . In 1876 a consul tation of physicians

said M rs . Terhune had not three months to l ive.

Her husband with h is usual promptness and deci

s ion,sent in h is resignat ion to the Newark Church

by whom he was greatly be loved, sold his home ,

furn iture and horses,

“ burned the bridges beh ind

him,

”as he said , and took his wife to Europe ,

where they remained for t wo years, be acting as

Chaplain of the American Chapel in Rome t he

first winter,and the Second supplying the American

MARY v. TE RHUNE MAR ION HARLAND 1 05

Church in Par is. M rs. Terhune became en tire ly

restored to heal th,and now

,a l i tt le pas t fifty

,

seems in the very prime and ful l joy and activi ty

of a vigorou s womanhood .

She has learned how with no appearance of

care to constantly care for her heal th , varying

her occupat ions to re l ieve one anothe r, and giv

ing ful l t ime to sleep and to out-door exercise,

e special ly to walking.

On her return from Europe She wrote Loitering s

in P leasant Pa t/zs,a most interesting and de l ight

ful book combining fine description with much of

h istory,and evincing wide reading and culture .

O ne of Marion Harland’s most valuable vol

umes is enti tled E ve’

s Daug kters, devoted to hy

g ienic common-sense for maid,wife and mothe r.

S he urges broad educat ion for girls. She says

Mary may not“ keep up her Latin after S he leaves

school , and her German may, from t he same date, becomet o her as tru ly a dead language . Bu t she wi l l wri te and

speak her mother- tongue t he bet ter for hav ing learned t heone ; t he breadth and grasp of her mind be improved by t hestudy of t he other.

She has carried out thi s idea in the educat ion

106 MARY v. TE RHUNE MARION

of herown children . Her e lde st daughter,though

married, fi tted herse lf for the cha i r of English

L ite rature in anycol lege , and reads and converse s

in five languages. Among other l ite rary tasks,

she and he r mothe r have charge of the Household

Department of a syndicate of fifteen pape rs.

Mrs . Terhune lose s no opportuni ty to urge girls

to form some defin ite aim. To mothers she says !

Do not — in t he absence of indicat ions of t he d iv ine thirs tand longing for musi cal expression which is genius— sacri

fice, diurnal ly, t wo hours of sunshine and swee t airs and

such affluence of innocent del ight in t he mere fact of be ing

al ive, as only chi ldhood ever knows this s ide of t he Land ofE ternal Youth, t o t he i gnoble ambi tion t o have your baby

accompl ished.

”Payherfor p i ck ing berries, hem

ming towels, she l l ing peas and dozens of other smal l tasks,stipulat ing that they must be done we l l and on t ime .

”Le t

her make out her bi l ls, keep her own accounts and never

impress herwith t he bel ief that S he is dependent upon you

for aught save love and care. I t is no t work, bu t

impatient sol i c i tude, t he fret ting, teas ing thought and care

for t he next minu te, t he next hour, t he next day, t o which we

apply t he home ly term worry,” that breaks down ourschool

girl .

S o far from t he elect ion and S tudy of professions bywomen act ing unfavorably upon domest i c l i fe , I bel ieve,after a tolerably thorough examinat ion of arguments and

108 MARY v . TE RHUNE (“ MARION

t ion before rush ing i t in to print. I have knit a

pair of cradle blanke ts for my grandchi ld in the

inte rval s of composit ion,th inking out page by

page , as the needle s played , and laying them

down now and then,to commit t he digested thought

to paper.

One learn s conten tment and concentration of

thought by such discipl ine of dai ly l ife,and to

manage temper and mind together.

She once said to me “ I love my kind and

have tr ied to he lp women . If the lowly places of

l ife are b righter,dai ly burdens that must be borne

l igh ter because I have l ived andworked,I am sat

isfied. I bel ieve i t i s possible to e leva te house

hold ‘ drudgery ’ in to a Mission ; to make Home

the centre of thought and duty,and ye t he lp t he

toi le rs in other homes .”

Truly,thi s woman has glorified the common

place . In behal f of domestic home-making women

everywhe re,i n cottage and i n mansion, she has

bestowed Shaping thought and refining care upon

a thousand detai l s of household comforts ; through

her influence countle ss women have learned to

TE RHUNE (“MAR ION HARLAND 1 09

upon cooke ry as a fine art. Her influence

upon the home wil l endure for more than this gen

indeed i t may be regarded as one of the

our t ime that determine what shal l be the

be l iefs and ideals of t he woman of the future.

CHAPTER VI.

E W ORLEANS, with i ts orange- trees, fra

gran t with white b lossoms andgolden fruit,

with i ts verandaed homes ove rgrown with rose s,with

its house- lawns bordered with swee t blue viole ts,i s

a city long to be remembe red by a stranger.

I was glad to see th i s ; I was glad to tou ch

the warm Southe rn hand wi th its genuine hospi

tal i ty ; bu t.

I was e special ly glad to see remem

bering what i t represented to New Orleans— the

marble statue of Margare t. I t stands in a

large O pen square, and i s the first,I be l ieve

,

e rected to a woman in th i s country. Margare t ”

i s represented si tting in a rustic chair,d re ssed i n

he r usual costume— a plai n Skirt and loose sack,

wi th a S imple Shawl thrown ove r her shoulders ;

he r arm encircle s a pretty orphan C hild.

1 1 0

MARGARE T. 1 13

The face of the woman is ve ry p lain but ve ry

kindly. There i s no indication that Margare t ”

was a woman of great power or of great fame ; the

statue i s simply the thank-offering of a whole ci ty

for a beautiful , unse lfish l ife , l ived in it s midst.

Many men and women have possessed mill ion s

and have spent al l upon themselves ; Margare t

spent her sma l l ri ches for others. Thousands

abou t he r had unl imited opportunitie s for educa

t ion ;“ Margare t ” coul d scarce ly write he r own

name . Ye t to her,of al l our coun trywomen

,

stands t he beautifu l memorial .

Who was th i s “ Margare t ” so honored above

others

More than a hal f- century ago,there came to

Bal t imore , among the Irish emigrants, a young man

and h is wife , Wil liam and Margare t Gaffney, to

seek the i r fortune s in the New World . They were

poo r of course , but they loved each othe r, andwere

happy to struggle togethe r. By and by a l i ttle

daughte r came into the ir home , whom they natu

ral ly cal led Margare t,afte r t he mother.

They were not long to enj oy the l i ttle daugh te r

1 14 MARGARE T.

or She to know the ir love , for both parents died

of ye l low feve r, leaving the helpless chi ld to the

tende rmercies of the world at large. Fortunate

ly, some friendly people , Mrs. Richards and her

husband,had crossed from Wales on the same

steame r as the Gaffneys, and though Mr. Ri chards

had j ust d ied al so of ye l low feve r,the stricken wife

took t he wee child into her own home .

The girl grew to womanhood in this Shel te r ; and

while she knew the privat ions and wearine sses of

pove rty and lowly labor,She knew a l so from the

good teach ings of Mrs. R ichards, that the best of

al l things in the world i s love l iness and truth of

character,and th is precious seed was to bear frui t

i n late r years.

In due time Margare t was married,to young

Charles Haug hery. They commenced l ife to

gethe r,as did her parents , with empty purse s and

ful l heart s. But shadows soon began to steal over

the l i t tle home . The husband’s heal th fai led,and

they decided to move from Bal timore to N ew

Orleans . But this change of cl imate did no good.

Advised by h is physician that sea-air migh t prove

1 16 MARGARET.

to col le ct food and money. How she was dressed,

o r whether she had ordinary comforts,seemed to

her of no moment. Her l i fe was centred in the

asylum .

One day when she appealed to a large groce ry

establishment for aid for the o rphans,one of the

firm laughingly said,

“We’l l give you all you can

pile on a wheelbarrow,if you wil l whee l i t to the

asylum yourse lf.”

Margare t promp tly agreed to th is,and in a short

time returned with her wheelbarrow, fi l led i t to its

utmost capaci ty, and trundled i t home along the

sidewalk. The young man surpri sed at he r coure

ag e , and admiring her noble sp i ri t,in sisted on

whee l ing i t for her,but Margare t pol i tely refused

,

saying she would cheerful ly whee l a barrow-load

every day for the orphans if i t we re given to he r.

S ister Regis,the Superior of the S is te rs of Char

i ty,much beloved for her se l f-sacrificing l ife , in

t ime became Margare t’s warmest friend and ad

vi ser. When i t was necessary to e rect a new O r

phan Asylum,a large and commodious one was

buil t on Camp stree t (in front of wh ich Margare t’s

MARGARET. 1 1 7

monument now stands) , and in ten years Marga

re t and S i ste r Reg i s, working toge the r, had freed

i t from debt. For seventeen years Margare t had

l ived in the asylum,managing the l arge dai ry

,

and doing any and eve ry kind of work that would

aid fatherless and motherless chi ldren .

In 185 2 , she decided to open an independent

dai ry in the upper part of the city ; in this enter

prise She soon demonstrated he r financial abil ity.

Neve r wasting a cen t upon he r own wants— in

deed she neve r seemed to have any— she scrupu

lously devoted all profi ts to her be loved work.

Eve rybody knew Margare t’s milk-wagon , and he r

kind plain face as she went from custome r to cus

tome r.

Then she added the old D’

Aquin bake ry to he r

business. The forme r proprie tor,who had always

been generous to the orphans,had become finan

cial ly crippled , and borrowing from Margare t,he r

credi tor at last was obliged to take the bake ry

into her own business. That she succeeded in

making money out of the new branch,was due

t o economy,sterl ing integrity

, and to t he fact that

1 18 MARGARET.

eve rybody knew and respected and re l ied upon

her and'

l iked to buy of he r.

She opened her bakery in 1860. Says Ge orge

W . Cab le,who knew her ! But long before that

,

as wel l as long and ever after i t,anyman might

say to you as a strange woman passed i n a dingy

mi lk-cart - or bread-cart in late r years— sitt ing

alone,and driving the slow

,wel l-fed horse

,There

goes Margare t.’ Margaret who ! ’ Margare t,

the Orphan’s Friend .

’ I suppose we Should have

forgotten her marrie d name entire ly,had not t he

invoices of her large e stabl ishment kept i t before

us. Go to Margare t’s was the word when a coun

try orde r cal led for anything that could be bough t

of he r ; but the i nvoice would read

N ew O rleans, M arck 15, 187 5.

ME SSRS. BLACK, W H ITE C o .

To M ARGARE T’S BAKE RY (Margare t Haug hery) Dr.

2 Bbls. Soda C rackers, e t c.

And what had she done,what was she doing,

to make her so famous ! Nothing but give, give,

MARGARE T. 1 2 I

give , give to t he orphan boy and t he orphan girl,

Cathol ic, Protestant, Hebrew,anyth ing. Yes, one

thing more she gave and S he l oved. But that was

all . Never a bid for attention . Neve r a h igh seat

in anyassembly. Never a place among the proud

or t he g ay. No pomp,no luxury

,no effort to

smarten up inte l lec tual ly and take a tardy place i n

t he aristocracy of brain s . Nothing for herse l f.

Riches and fame migh t Spoi l Solomon ; they did

not spoi l Margare t.

Of educat ion she had almost nothing ; of

beauty as l i ttle —to the outward eye ; accomplish

ments,none ; e xterior graces

,none ; aggre ssive

ambition,t he disposition to scheme or strive for

station or preference,none ; Sparkl ing gaye ty, ex

uberan t mirth,none

,more than you or I ; money ,

some,a l it tle

,a trifle ; financial sagacity

,a fai r

Share,but nothing extraordinary ; frugal i ty ! yes,

frugal i ty— as to he rse lf. What e lse ! re l igion !

Yes,yes ! pure , swee t, gentle , upbubbling , overflow

ing, plentiful , genuine , deep, and high ; a faith

proving itse lf incessantly in works,and a modesty

and unconsciousness that made he r beneficence as

I 22 MARGARET.

si len t as a stream underground. He rs was one of

those ve ry rare natures, whose happiness i s found

in blessing, not i n be ing blessed.

The whole town honored he r. The presidents

of banks and insurance companies,of the Chambe r

of Commerce , the Produce Exchange , the Cotton

Exchange,none of them commanded the humble

regard, the quick deference , from one merchant or

a dozen,that was given to Margare t. They cal led

her by her bapti smal name— as they do queens

and sai nts— because they loved he r,and then

loved her the more because She went by that

name ; t he name of that swee t meadow flowe r

which Wordsworth cal l s ‘t he poet’s darl ing.

’

While the Civ i l W ar lasted he r business was

somewhat checked,but neve r he r chari ty.

During t he war, t he Fourth Louisiana Regiment

was captured at Shiloh and brough t to N ew O r

leans, and imprisoned a t t he pol ice s tation , Algiers,

across the river. The new s of the ir arrival sped

through t he city, exci ting t he sympathie s of thou

sands of women , who immediate ly sent presents of

clothing,food and n icet ie s . Margare t

,t rue to he r

1 24 MARGARET.

but fai ling in this,gave him one hundred and fifty

dol lars to buy a leg ; then se t him up in business

as a newspape r-se l le r, and supplied his family with

bread during he r l i fe . This young man was a

patte rn-maker in a found ry ; but his wound inca

pacit at ed him for h is position .

In t he inundations to which New Orleans is

subject from the overflow’

of t he Mississippi River,

Margare t could be seen dai ly i n a large boat,

standing in the midst of great pi les of b read, a

colored man paddling her through the rive r-streets,

as she dispensed her loaves to the half-starved

families .

She neve r asked what the ir race or creed. All

al ike shared her bounty. Her l ife-motto ! “ God

has been so good to me , I must be good to all .”

The three largest Homes for Children in N ew

Orleans are a lmost entire ly t he work of Margare t,

as wel l as t he Home for the Aged and Infirm.

Be ing asked once ,“ Why don’t you buy a fine

dress she repl ied, There i s too much suffe ring

in this world .

”

For forty-s ix years Margare t had carried on

MARGARET. 1 2 5

these labors of love in N ew Orleans, making

her money with great industry and sagaci ty,to

Spend i t for t he poor and affl icted . Bu t the t ime

drew near for her to leave her work to othe r bands.

S ickness came . The women of wealth and fashion

made t he S ick bed as easy to lie upon as possible.

To a lady who said,

“ I am sorry to see you i ll ,”

Margare t answered! Oh no,the Lord sometimes

has to lay his finger on me to le t me know I am

mortal and don ’t be long to myse lf bu t to Him .

”

On February 9 , 1 882 , the end came of this noble

l ife . And then thousands,the poor and the rich ,

t he City Government and New Orleans’merchants

and bankers, gathered a t t he funera l to do M ar

gare t honor. The service s were conducted by the

Archbishop of the D iocese . Then fol lowed in

carriages,afte r t he pal l-bearers as the beloved

Margaret was borne to the grave, the ch i ldren of

e leven orphan asylums, white and black,Protes

tant and Cathol ic . Many of the fire companies

of the city were present,especial ly “ Mississippi

Number Two,

” of which She was an honorary

member. Great crowds l ined the streets, and al l

1 26 MARGARET.

men took off their hats reverently, as the proces

sion moved by.

The fol lowing Sabbath,se rmons upon M ar

g are t’s characte r and l ife were preached from

many pulpi ts upon the woman so poor and plain

that she neve r wore a S ilk dress or a kid glove ; so

rich that she gave in chari tie s six hundred thou

sand dol lars,the fru i t of he r own labors.

S t. Margare t as She i s often ca l led, l ived he r

l ife in grand he ights and breadths. She brough t

eve ry man andwoman who knew her up on highe r

leve ls, too, for a moment’s gl impse at least. Her

monument,bui l t by the ci ty she blessed , stands now,

i n place of he r,a constant reminde r that one's own

ch i ldren are not t he only ch ildren in the world ;

that one’s home is not the on ly home into which

we are commanded to carry sunshine and love ;

that though one be poor, the re i s work for othe rs

to do ; that though one be ignorant, one may yet

carry heaven’s own l ight far and near.

1 28 ELLA GRANT C AMPBE LL.

touch he re, for the business woman has hung

among the blossoms a large p icture of he r daug h

ter, named Pansy,” a pre tty l i ttle creature with

blue eye s and golden hai r,who holds in he r arms

a pussy-cat nearly as large as herself.

The greenhouses of thi s establ ishment are al

ways an i nte resting study. Plants just set out from

clippings which the deft finge rs of Mrs . Campbe l l

pul l up for uS to see i f they are rooted,and then

set down again i n the warm earth,seem not t o

mind the upl i fting. Here are carnations i n bud ;

great beds of l i l ies-of- the-val ley ; t ree s covered W i th

lemons,masses of rich-colored fol iage plants

ready for the summe r beds in the parks.

And I can bu t wonder as I look upon this beau

t iful and successful business,and see how*

refined

and how sunny and happy i s the young woman

who manages i t,whom I have known for years

I can bu t wonde r, I say, that more women do not

take up the busine ss of floricul ture . There is hard

work in i t,as i n eve ry other cal l ing patience , care ,

perhaps even the creation and train ing of a good

marke t—demand for plants andflowers—but tending

E LLA GRANT C A M PB E LL .

132 ELLA GRANT C AMPBELL.

enue one b right afte rnoon (e leven years ago last

fal l) , I noticed that M r. Jaynes had just bui l t an

expensive office . He would want a girl to take

care of i t ! I ente red , found Mr. Jaynes ; asked

him breath le ssly,If he didn’t want a girl to take

care of t he office , learn to make up flowe rs,and do

anything that she could to make herse lf useful ! ’

Yes,’he needed such a girl

,and I was ‘ j ust

the one he wanted . The active way I j umped in

and out of the wagon pleased him .

’ I was en

gaged to keep books, wai t on customers , take care

of the ofiice, and make myse lf‘ gene ral ly useful .’

I had been in my posi tion three or four mon ths,

when fathe r met with an accident and I was obl iged

to go home and help take care of h im . Mr. Jayne s

tol d me on leaving that ‘ i n eve rything I was sat

isfact ory except making up . That my work was

too loose and scraggy,

’and that he did not think

I would amount to much as a florist .’

“ I went home very much discouraged . But I

loved flowers,and plants and flowers I must have .

A gentleman (a true love r of all plant forms) , Mr.

Tain tor,deputy post-maste r of Cleve land fortwenty !

ELLA GRANT C AMPBELL. 133

five years,presented me with some smal l p lants

and choice cutt ings from his private greenhouse .

And at diffe ren t t ime s mothe r would invest from

ten to twenty-five cents in marke t plants for me ,

unti l by the next fal l I had quite a n ice col lect i on

of choice plants. I secured twen ty-six native va

rie t ies of hardy fern s from the woods, which I

planted on an old table,and i n a hanging baske t

of old hoop-Skirt dipped in seal ing-wax .

“ This fern baske t and table were my especial

pride that winte r,and more than one came to see

my colle ction . Besides,I had one hundred and

seventy-five plants in pots and in boxes,old butte r

crocks,and anything that could be util ized.

“ Mother al lowed me to have our fron t room,

which has two east windows and one north window,

for my plants . I had only a poor apology of a soft

coal stove for heating. On cold nights I used to

move al l the plants in to the m idd le of t he room,

and wrap them up in newspape rs to keep them

from freez ing or getting chil led . We had an un

usual ly cold,severe winte r. I would Sleep on the

lounge in the room and ge t up sometimes three

134 ELLA GRANT C AMPBE LL.

o r four t imes a n ight to replen ish the fire,but I

succeeded in bringing my plants safe ly through,

while most al l of my friend s had thei rs destroyed .

O ne day as I was looking through M r. Tain tor’s

garden,I came across a pile of sash and othe r

mate rial s pe rta in ing to a greenhouse st ructure . I

asked him what i t was and he told me i t was an

old greenhouse he had taken down and brought

in from his farm . Turning to me,he said ! I’l l

se l l it to you cheap and you can take your own

t ime in paying for i t.’ I asked h im How much ! ’

more for conversat ion than with any idea of buy

ing it. ‘We l l,

’ sa id he,I’l l se l l i t to you for ten

dollars and you can payme when you are able,and

the re is a quanti ty of bri cks and old lumber out on

the farm now which you are we l come to .

’

“At the suppe r table that evening I repeated

what Mr. Ta in tor had sa id,whereupon my younge r

brother Be rt rem arked,I te l l you what

,El la

,you

take i t, and I wi l l put i t up for you , i f you wi l l on ly

g e t those plants out of t he house .’

(Bert used to

be cal led on to he lp me move the plants .)“ The next day we went to the farm and ia

136 E LLA GRANT C AMPBE LL.

baskets,p lan ts

,o r cut flowers. Eve ry day fathe r

was not using h is horses I wou ld take one and

del iver orders,also take out p lants and se l l them .

To be brie f,I cleared my greenhouse of debt by

my Spring work . I d id al l the work myse lf wi th

occasional assistance from my brothe r. That fal l

we put in a fine and furnace . My first g reenhouse

was e leven by e ighteen fee t,with glass on side s

and roof,and adjoining t he house . I had tried

to do al l the work well , that was given me to do,

but I was a struggl ing girl,and I had a hard

time of i t. When I first thought of gain ing my

l iving as a flori st,I rece ived a great deal of dis

courag ement from fathe r, he prophesying that‘ I

would not make a two-cen t hat or S ix-cent cal ico

dress.’ He has since changed his opinion .

The next spring my greenhouse s were ful l of

fai r marke t plants. I strove to grow only choice

varie tie s,or something that was not grown in pro

fusion by the other florists ; I bought plants in

quanti ty from Mr. Jaynes and othe rs,restocking

my house s several t imes . From t he first I have

always bel ieved in push ing business, and I went

ELLA GRANT C AMPBE LL. 137

after my orders,instead of wa i t ing for them to

come to me ; though I always endeavored to keep

with in the l im its of good taste i n th i s d irection .

That fal l I de te rmined to make a bo ld stroke . I

wou ld bui ld a greenhouse large enough to grow

my own cu t flowers. My brother,who had been

away,came home at th i s t ime

,andwe bui l t a green

house twen ty-two by fifty-five , with a Shed twelve

by twenty-two at the end, whe re our furnace was

located. Thi s cost about three hundred and fifty

dol lars. I t took two years to pay for i t. We a lso

purchased a horse . I t was during these two years

that I commenced to push ‘my flora l design ’

work .

I was craving for a recognition from the other

florists,and I could not see any bette r way than

to meet them on the ir own ground,on the i r own

leve l . I have a lways been most anxious that my

work should be j udged with man’s work, or in other

words,on it s own merits . My first exh ibi tion was

at the S tate F ai r at Columbus.

“ I arrived before any of my competitors, and

found the flowers pretty badly shaken up . My


larges t p iece,a combinat ion of a heart

,anchor and

Bible,came to hand turned over on i ts side .

Bouque ts and baske ts we re in various stages of

pe rfection and imperfection and decay. I looked

at my carefu l ly prepared work and fe l t blue . But

I picked up my spirits and went to work. I had

taken the precaution of bringing loose flowers w i th

me,and these I soon uti l ized

,repai ring what dam

ag e had been done as faras was possible . I re

ceived many courtesie s from t he oflicials and was

placed on the awarding committee for amateurs.

‘When I viewed the designs brought in by my

compe t ito rs I began to be sure I had no chance

again st fresh flowers, and such exce l len t work . I

was agreeably su rprised when I received first pre

mium on hand bouque ts,and second on display.

The fi rst premium was al so given to a woman , Miss

Maggie Evans of Columbus,Ohio

,who has a great

native tale nt in floral arrangement, and I am glad

to say she has been a wa rm pe rsonal friend from

t he day we we re active compe ti tors at the S tate

F air at Columbus.

“ I now made up my mind that if I was to suc

140 ELLA GRANT CAMPBE LL.

were place s where the flowe rs we re shaken out

almost as large as a man’s hat. The othe r florists

had the ir exhibi ts en tire ly in place . And I fel t

indeed as though ‘ I cou ld not compe te with the

designs in there .

’ I t was then five o’clock,and I

worked unti l dark,when my brothe r and the S u

perint endent took tu rns holding l ighted matches

for me to see by. The premiums were to be

awarded the next morning ; but so discouraged

dld I fee l that I could not be induced to visi t the

grounds. (I must confess to a good , hard cry.)

But mothe r and brother went out,and I stayed at

home and worked,and worked , and chided myself

for my presumption in thi nking I cou ld compe te

with those who had so much better faci l i t ie s in

ski l led labor and choice flowe rs. By the time

they had returned at n ight,I had worked myself

into a proper submissive mood to rece ive the

news I expected them to bring. Mother came in,

and si tting down,said

,

‘Well,

’ i n answer to my

inquiring look,and drew forth from her pocke t a

yel low piece of card-board and handed i t to me .

I though t she was teasing me , and said .

‘Mothe r,

ELLA GRANT C AMPBE LL. I4 !

how can you !’ I sti l l thought she had palmed off

a bit of use less card-board on me .

‘ Read i t,

’said

she, and through my tears I managed to read

‘I st premium.

’ Even then I could scarce ly be

l ieve the good news. Mother,

’ said I,

‘ you are

unkind .

’ ‘Why,it’

s yours, ch ild .

’Twas on the

tab le design when we got the re .

’

“ Can you imagine my fee l ings ! From one ex

treme I rushed to the othe r. I was wild with joy .

I hugged mothe r. I wal tzed around the room

like a crazy girl . I had been we ighed and not

been found wanting ! I had ideas ! I had come

ou t victorious in a fair and square te st wi th those

who had every faci l i ty at the i r command . I have

passed through othe r such scenes s ince,but the

most excit ing test of abi l i t ie s would not raise me

to such a feve r of de l irium as that first publ ic ac

knowledgment of my success in competing with

our old and wel l~ establi shed florists.

“ N o t the least pleasant feature of the exhibi

t ion was, that on the fol lowing day some of the

compe ting florists came to me and said ! ‘You

have won i t fai rly ! I t be longs to you rightful ly .

’


A ll our pape rs spoke in praise of my efforts;

and i t was the means of giving me a general ih

t roduct ion to the publ ic as a commercial floris t.

Soon afte r thi s I rece ived an invi tation from

Col . Fogg,editor of the Hera ld

,to go to Cincin

nat i as a special corre spondent to wri te up the

floral feature s of t he Exposition there . Here I

was in my e lement,though in a new fie ld. A flo

ral reporte r ! I t Opened up new means for se lf

improvement which I endeavored to improve to

the uttermost. I bel ieve there i s no bette r means

of se lf-educat ion than to write on l ive issues and

new ideas ; to catch events before they be come

old . I t was a red le t ter daywhen I saw my first

l e tte r in prin t,and by careful ly noting what e rrors

had been committed,and avoiding them after

ward , I found by the fourth or fifth le tte r that they

were printed ve rbat im .

“ Two years afte rward my brother went into

business with me,andwe erected a larger ‘ forcing

house .

’ This was buil t running east and west

with a long Slope facing the south . Pe te r Hen

derson’s P ract ical F loricul t ure, presented by Mr.

144 E LLA GRANT C AMPBE LL.

could keep track of al l the l i ttle th ings that go to

make up the sum total of success. I find,a l so

,

that watering is one of the most important Ope ra

tion s connected w ith the practical runn ing of a

greenhouse . To give or w ithhold water from dif

ferent plants at d ifferent time s of the year requires

experience and the nicest j udgment,not on ly for

different pl an ts,but a l so for the differen t stages

of t he same plant.

“ In regard to the future of woman in hort i

cu lture,I regard i t as b right. Any woman can do

what I have done,and bette r i f she has capita l

and expe rience For I have worked at a disad

vantage i n regard to both . Last Chri stmas I em

ployed e ight or ten girls and two young men .

“ I must not forget to mention in conclusion the

very mate rial aid and help I have rece ived from a

lady who has been my true friend. When finan

cial skies looked dark or some very much-needed

improvement needed to be made,she has given

me help in t he Shape of loans , at S ix per cent in

t erest , with t he privi lege of paying i t back in easy

payments. And more than th i s,S he has placed

ELLA GRANT C AMPBELL. 145

l iberal orders wi th me,and so gave me real help

— t he privi lege of earning the money she so

kindly loaned me . Would that more wou ld loan

from the i r p lenty, not give , to struggl ing begi n

ners who are strain ing every nerve to make a suc

cess of l ife .

”

But M rs . Campbe l l has not refe rred to some

of her Signal successes . So let me mention one

or two. For instance ! When President Garfie ld’s

body was brought to Cleveland for burial,the

stree ts of the ci tywe re , of course , to be beaut iful ly

decorated wi th arche s, andall that money and taste

could do to make the city worthy to honor i ts great

statesman,was to be thorough ly done . Mrs . Camp

bel l rece ived notice on Thursday noon , that she

had been designated to superintend much of the

flora l work . She began at e igh t in t he even ing,

with a force of picked men and girls,upon whom

she could rely,and Slept bu t two hours each nigh t

unti l t he s tree ts were made ready for the passing

of t he solemn proce ssion . Her designs were orig

inal and e laborate, ye t with beautiful breadth of

effect . Each arch was impressive , al l the com

146 E LLA GRANT C AMPBELL.

memorat ive le ttering distinct and symme trical.

The verdict of t he press was ! “ Eve ry piece i s a

work of art, and wi l l bear t he c losest inspection .

”

Quite recently S he has be stowed a pleasure upon

the publi c,i n t he form of a C hrysanthemum Show

,

”

having over two hundred varie tie s upon exh ib i tion .

A simi lar exh ib it ion of choice rose s was given last

year, some of them so rare and so beautiful as to

bring five dol lars for a single blossom . A t the

Nationa l gathering of the Ame rican Hort icult u

rists,i n 188 6

,Mrs. Campbe l l carried off many of

t he honors ; she rece ived t he first premium for best

flora l designs,as a lso t he first premium for the

best col lection of cut flowers ; the second prize

for t he best col lection of gladiol i, the second for

dahl ias,the second for ge ran iums

,and the second

for begonias in pots. O ne of her floral designs,

much admired there,was a dain t y wh i te parasol

of carnat ions with a l in ing of brigh’

t scarle t Lady

Emma’s . The ex te rior was decorated with a dra

pe ry of Le France roses, and l i l ie s with de l icate

fe rns, the whole supported by a standard of trop i

cal fe rn s.


a sl ight, fragi le creature. Other women, t oo, are

succeeding as flori sts .

Mrs. Harri s Jaynes,the widow of the flori s t who

first employed M rs. Campbel l, has, since he r hus

band’s death,managed the business with the aid

of her two sons. She has seven greenhouses, with

fifty thousand fee t of glass,cult ivate s n ine acre s

of grasses and flowers,and employs nearly a dozen

pe rsons . Miss Bristol of Topeka,Kans . , Mrs.

Packard of Quincy, Mass ., Mrs. Shuster of Brook

lyn,N. Y.,

and many others are known as prospe r

ous flori sts. Miss Me rriman of Beacon stree t,

Boston,has for seven years been a succe ssful

flower-grower and flower- trader,the first woman

to engage in th is business in that ci ty,I be l ieve .

The oldest florists i n Boston sa id,W e wi ll give

her Six months to go unde r ;” but the ir pred ic

t ion s have fai led . She admits that the working

hours are long,the care s of the busine ss many ,

but she has no thought of abandoning it .

Why is not th is an ideal industry for women !

The more flower-growing the be tter, t he more

love ly our homes, the more refined our nation .

CHAPTER VII I.

RAC HEL L ITTLE R BODLEY.

HE rol l of Successful Women wou ld not be

comple te wi thou t the name of Prof. Rache l

Li ttle r Bodley,A . M .

,M . D.,

Dean of the Woman’s

Medical Col lege of Pennsylvania. She has not

reached the posi tion she occupies withou t meeting

difficu l tie s and surmoun ting obstacle s ; her story

i s a record of he roic efforts, unt iring industry, uh

selfish devotion .

Prof. Bodley was born in Cincinnat i, Ohio. He r

pate rnal ances try was Scotch-Irish , the American

progeni tor, Thomas Bodley, having emigrated from

the north of I re land in t he first quarte r of the

e ighteenth century, and se ttled in what i s now

Montgome ry County,Pennsylvania. There he

married M rs. E l iza Knox (née M cInt osh) from

Edinburgh,Scotland ; the e leventh president of

I 49

150 RAC HE L L ITTLER BODLEY.

the U n ited S tate s was a d irect descendant of this

widow. Wil l iam , the e ldest son of Thomas and

El i za Bodley,was the great-grandfather of Prof.

Bodley ; he was a soldie r in the Continen tal army,

and during the terrib le winter of 1 777—78 was with

General Wash ington at Val ley Forge,where he

ranked as Maj or ; he contracted consumption from

exposure in the se rvice,and died in 1 780. H i s

grave , with i ts gray l ichened headstone in a state

of exce l lent preservation,i s i n the churchyard of

Providence Meeting House not far from Norris

town,Pa. S tanding by i ts S ide the eye takes i n a

far~ reaching landscape of marvel lous beauty, the

d istant h il l s about Val ley Forge be ing dis tinct ly

visible .

The maternal ancestorwas John Talbott, an Eng

l ish Friend who emigrated to the Colony of Vi r

gin ia andwas the progenitor of a large fami ly who

through two succeeding centurie s have honored

the i r name and l ineage . Rebecca Wilson Talbott

and Anthony Richard Bodley, the parents of

Rache l L i ttle r Bodley, went to Oh io early in the

present centu ry. Rebecca, the Quakeress, the

RAC HE L L ITTLE R BODLE Y. 153

only daughter of Samue l and Rache l L i t tler Tal

bott; crossed the A l leghany Mountains in an emi

gran t wagon,be ing one of a family of five young

children who were taken by the i r paren ts from t he

old home near Wincheste r,Virginia

,to the farWe st

which in 1 806 was on the banks of the M onong a

hela in Western Pennslyvania. A few years late r,

the Virgin ia emigrants moved in to the adjoin ing

S tate and eventual ly the whole family embarked in

an“ark constructed by t he e ldes t son

,and de

scended the Ohio R iver,landing at the town of

Cincinnat i i n M ay, 18 1 7 .

Anthony Bodley at twenty-one Se t ou t from

Montgome ry County,Penn .,

to seek his fortune,

and crossed the mountain s on foot ; from Pittsburg

he de scended the rive r in a canoe or Skiff,reach

ing Cinc innat i about the same time as the Talbott

family.

Five children were born to Anthony and Rebecca

Bod ley,of whom Rache l was the elder daughter

and t he th ird child . The educat ion and t ra in ing

O f the ch i ldren devolved upon the mother. This

p ious and devoted woman dedicated he r l i t tle

1 54. RAC HE L L ITTLE R BODLEY.

daughter to the Lord,and chiefly to he r i nfluence

and teach ing i s due the strength and exce l lence of

character exemp l ified in her chi ld . The daughter

neve r forgot the consecrat ion,and her l ife has been

one of steadfast obedience to he r mother’s injune

t ion wri tte n in a birthday album Make eve ry

th ing subse rvien t to the h igh aim of pleasing the

great I AM , lean on Him ,lean on no earthly stay

your strength,your sufficiency is in Jesus alone .

M rs. Bodley Opened a private school in Cincin

nat i,and in th i s school Rache l was a pupi l unti l

he r twelfth year. Both mothe r and daughter be

lieved that the best education and the broadest cul

ture were means to the greate st usefulness ; hence

even t he fragments of t ime were improved to secure

a l iberal education,and to th i s end Rache l entered

the We sleyan Femal e Col lege of Cincinnati i n

1844. Th i s inst i tut ion,the first chartered col lege

for women in the U nited S tate s, and hence , in the

world,was founded in 1842 for the purpose of giv

ing to women a higher education than the exi sting

schools and seminaries afforded . Th i s col lege

wh ich,for t he first seventeen years of i ts h is to ry,

1 56 RAC HE L L ITTLER BODLEY.

ley was appoin ted to an assistan t teacher’s place

in the facul ty of he r A lma Mate r,and here she

remained ascending in grade,ti l l 1860

,when she

was Preceptress in the Higher Col legiate studie s .

To say she was a good teache r were too tame and

Spir itle ss an expression to u se in refe rr ing to one

so thoroughly prepared,so in love with he r work .

Her rare power in winning the hearts of he r

pupi ls,gave he r unusual influence ove r the ir minds

,

and .thus mutual ly loving and be ing loved , they

taught and learned with an enthusiasm which

robbed study of i ts tedium,begat a hunger and

thirst for knowledge,and made the school- room a

place of de l ight. Not content wi th explain ing the

lessons of the text-books,she fe l t responsib le fo r

the moral deve lopment of he r pupi ls, and made

time to close each week’s dutie s with spe cial re l i

gions instruct ion . I t i s the testimony of many of

her pupi l s of those early years that these le ssons

given in such an unobtrusive manne r made a last

ing impre ssion,and that the exampl e of Christian

characte r before them dai ly became the ir h ighes t

mode l in mature r years .

RAC HE L L ITTLE R,

BO DLE Y. 15 7

Notwithstanding he r success through these

e leven years as a teache r,Rache l Bodley was not

sati sfied with her at tainments . Hence to gratify

a worthy ambition and to qual ify herself for sti l l

greate r usefulness,she left home in the autumn of

1860 for Phi lade lphia to become a special student

i n advanced chemistry and physics in the Poly

techn ic Col lege of Penn sylvan ia,at that t ime the

lead ing insti tut ion of the country for in struction i n

the appl ied sciences ; and of practical anatomy and

physio logy in the Woman’s Medical Col lege of

Penn sylvania. Afte r a year of close appl ication

and of rich acqu irement, she re turned home , and

in Feb ruary,1 862

,was appointed Professor of

Natural Science s in the Cincinnat i Female Semi

n ary,which posi tion she occupied three years .

During th is t ime she made a va luable cont ribu

tion to loca l botan ical science in the shape of a

catalogue of plants. Joseph Clark,a native of

Scotland,but for the last thirty-five years of h is

l ife a resident of Cincinnati,died in 1858 ; he was

a love r of nature and an indefatigab le col lector of

S pecimens of natura l h isto ry. Afte r his death hi s

1 58 RAC HE L L ITTLE R BODLEY.

extensive col lection s came in to the C incinnati F e

male Seminary. We wil l le t Prof. Bodley tel l what

she did in an extract from the preface of th is at

tract ive catalogue of forty-e ight pages

W hen I entered t he seminary in 1862, I found chaos

re igning in t he domain of science . In t he midst of abound

ing weal th famine was inevi table through lack of classifica

t ion. W i th a resolute wi l l I entered S ingle-handed upon t he

Herculean task of making these treasures ava i lable t o sci

ence . N o attemp t at c lass ificat ion accord ing t o t he natural

system had been made. The plants for t he most part had

been named , but named according t o t he nomenclature of

thirty years ag o. Hence t he necessi ty for a careful study

of synonyms and a cri t i cal and laborious examinat ion of in

d ividual specimens for t he purpose of e ffect ing t he numer

ous nomenclatural changes which t he advance of science

rendered necessary.

The Amer i can plants have been classified according t o t he

natural system as publ ished by Prof. Gray in his Manual

of t he Botany of t he N orthern U ni ted S tates, rev ised edi'

t ion 1857 , and by Dr. C hapman in his Flora of t he Sou th

ern U ni ted S tates, There were also fore ign plants,Bri tish ferns andmosses, packages of plants from N ewZea

land. In t he absence of anyre l iable manual which embraced

t he countries represented by these plants they were clas

sified as far as orders and genera with L indley’s Vege table

Kingdom as my gu ide. The mass was carefu lly opened, t he

plants ident ified and final ly arranged In labe l led Sheets of

uniform size, and t he whole placed In a convenient herba

160 RAC HEL L ITTLE R BODLEY.

of arduous labor, she stil l to i l s inspiring students,

serving human ity, and honoring God . In January,

1847 , she was e lected Dean of the Facu l ty,S ince

which time S he has given herself,t ime

,talents

,and

strength wholly to the col lege,promoting its inte r

ests,striving in every way to benefit and e levate

he r sex,and to Secure for woman and her work

the recogni tion and respect wh ich they deserve .

The industry whose resul ts have been part ial ly

shown,has been truly marve lous . A l though Prof.

Bodley graduated,she has neve r finished her

course of study. While teaching in C incinnati

she was sti l l pursu ing he r studie s unde r the best

masters. Hercol lege course had been a thorough

classical one , in cluding al so mathematics and two

modern languages,but throughout the eleven years

th i s mental acquirement was systematical ly and

statedly supplemented with private le ssons in

highe r mathemat ics,music

,French

,German

,e lo

cu t ion, drawing, microscopy and phonography.

These subjects al te rnate d with each other usual ly

only one subject being pursued a t a t ime ; when

the se se l f- imposed tasks were chal lenged by he r

RAC HE L L ITTLE R BODLEY. 16 1

friends,t he young teache r was a ccustomed to de

fend them by saying that they kept her “ out

of the ruts and imparted good qual ity to her

own teach ing. From th i s extended and cri tica l

study of standard French and German authors,

the transition to tex t-books was easy and natural

when the t ime came for her to devote herse l f to

natural science Through sig h t~reading she has

wi thout effort been able to keep abreast with the

late st phases of scientific thought on the continen t,

w i thout the marring and the de lay incident to pub

lished translations . After Prof. Bodley had taken

up he r re sidence i n an Eastern ci ty the same habi t

of dai ly appl ication enab led her to pursue the

regular course of medical study begun in 18 60,

and to comple te i t while fulfil l ing the dutie s of

her chai r in lecture room and in laboratory.

Her summer vacat ion s consti tute t he only le isure

the laborious l ife of Prof. Bodley has eve r per

mit t ed. The vacation trip was careful ly planned

months before i t occurred and usua l ly compre

hended long j ourneys,neve r hote l residence except

during brief pauses for needful rest . In thi s way

162 RAC HEL L ITTLE R BODLEY.

th roughout the decades,thi s American woman,

loyal in her recreat ion s as in her labors,has visited

eve ry typical local i ty whose natural scene ry or his

toric associations invite attention,from the Great

Lake s to the Gulf of Mexico , and from the Atlantic

Ocean to the Rocky Mountains.

Beginning as a l ittle girl wi th the encircl ing

hil ls of the beaut iful queen ci ty of her birth,which

h id from her view the great world which She longed

to explore,he r earl iest journey beyond them was

made one summe r daywhen the wise mothe r trans

ported he r en tire l it tle b rood of four,on the won

derful railway (the Li t tle Miami) then in process of

construction and which terminated i n the field s

about thirty mi le s from Cincinnat i ; the li ttle party

pushed on by stage to Green County, thei r dest i

nation be ing the cl iff s of the L i tt le Miami R ive r.”

This for the ch ildren was thei r firs t “ scenery

and the happy day spent in the min iature canyon

was neve r forgotten ; of the“ four i t was Rachel’s

soul that was fi l led with reveren t awe and spee ch

less de l igh t. The impend ing rocks, the unfamil

iar,sombre evergreens and the fal l ing waters t e

164 RAC HE L L ITTLER BODLEY.

ages utterly unsafe to be undertaken by a lady.

S ixteen years later the same lady,th i s time alone

,

entered t he harbor of Duluth on a magnificent

steamer and, afte r a late breakfast i n a first -class

hotel , began the ascen t of the S t. Louis Rive r

seated in a luxurious rai lway car ; onward sped

the train, the names of station s as gleaned from

rai lway guide recal l ing the careful s tudy of t he

portage route,which was to have consumed many

days. In the late afte rnoon of the glorious mid

summer daythe train rol led into t he state ly ci ty of

S t. Paul and t he dream of years was fulfi l led !

The transi t from the greatest lake to the greatest

r ive r of the continen t had been made,but the

glamour was gone,the steam passage had proved

destitute of poetic e lements, t/ze dear brot/zers were

bot/z dead.

Many of t he later recreation j ourneys were taken

quite alone as a frIend rare ly could be found able

to undergo the fatigue incident to extended and

often laborious routes. Botany here came in good

stead,the trave l le r finding in the col le ction and

fie ld study of plants abundant companionship ; i n

RAC HEL L ITTLER BODLEY. 1 65

witness of th is,t he botan ical trunk manufacture d

to order and contain ing specimen- Sheets and dry

ing pape r and board s in abundance,toge ther with

ready-cut labe l s and t he manual s of Gray and of

Chapman,always const ituted part of the baggage

of the tou ri st . I n th is s ilen t and congenial com

panionship with in the last twenty years, the Venus’

Fly-trap has been studied and gathered in the

sandy bogs in the vicini ty of Wilmington,North

Carol ina ; t he l i ly of the val ley on t he high moun

tains of Virgin ia ; the graceful wh ite racemes of

the snowdrop- tree on t he mounta in road leading to

Hawk’s Nest wh ich overhang New R iver i n West

Virgin ia ; the crimson pan icles of the dwarf horse

chestnut on the Shore of Mobile Bay; the A lpine

sandwort on the summit of Mount Monadnock ;

in t he hem of t he vast wilderness on the north

shore of Lake Superior,the da inty and fragran t

Linnma Boreal i s ; on the weste rn plai n s the sage

bush ; in the val ley of t he Arkansas, the rega l

b lossoms of the cactuses ; and on the mountain

side s in Colorado in t he solemn presence of t he

snow- crowned peaks, the bril l iant A lpine flora

166 RAC HEL L ITTLE R BODLE Y.

which in August g lorifies the scan ty soi l above

t imber l ine. As wil l be readily surmised,Prof.

Bodley i s an ardent lover of nat ure,not i ts wor

shiper, for to her“ nature i s but the name of an

effect,whose cause i s God.

” And at His fee t She

keeps herse lf and al l her gifts in pe rpe tual offering.

Previous to he r e lect ion as Dean, Prof. Bodley

accepted invi tation s to teach or lecture during

t ime which was unoccupied by the dutie s of he r

professorship ; she was thus occupied in t he sum

mer of 1 866 at Flushing, Long Island ; 1867 and

1868,in Phi ladelph ia ; in the Spring of 1 869 she

del ivered a course of lectures i n Cincinnat i to

which leading physicians and teache rs li stened

with interest and profit. Five seasons, 1870—1874

inclusive, she gave instruction in Howland school ,

Cayuga Lake , N. Y.

Prof. Bodley came to the deanship when a new

col lege bui lding was i n progress, the corner stone

of which was laid in 1874, andpossession taken in

March,1875 . The number of students then in at

tendance was S eventy ; during the presen t annual

session (1886—8 7) th i s numbe r i s one hundred

1 68 RAC HE L L ITTLE R BODLE Y.

t iallyprofessional l ife , and Dr. Rache l L. Bodley,

Dean of the Woman’s Medica l Col lege of Pennsyl

vania,has late ly insti tu ted, among the two hun

dred and seventy-six graduate s,a series of inqui

rie s bearing on the ir whole publ ic l ife for the thirty

years since the first c lass graduated . The care

with wh ich the facts were obta ined,and t he clear

ness with which they are stated,give them a value

almost un ique .

Among t he th irty-three graduate s of the class of

1 886 was a Brahmin ladv of high caste from India.

A l ready we l l educated when She came She pursued

t he course of med ical study for three years. The

previous h istory of Dr. AnandibaiJoshee , he r com

ing to America,her progre ss and success

,had been

a perpe tual source of interest to those acquainted

with her presence in the col lege . In anticipation

of the memorable event of t he graduation of th is

Brahmin lady, Dean Bodley extended an invi tation

to he r distinguished kinswoman then in England,

Pundi ta Ramabai Sarasvati , scholar, lecture r and

poe t of India,to visi t Ph i ladelph ia as her guest.

The Pundita came,accompanied by he r l i ttle daug h

RAC H E L L ITTLER BODLEY. 169

t er of five years,and in the American Academy of

Music in the presence of a vast audience she wit

nessed on Commencement Daywith ful l heart, the

conferring of the degree of Doctor of Medicine

upon herHindu siste r. The next even ing a formal

reception was give n the two distinguished ladie s

in the parlor of Association Hal l,the guests be ing

lad ies to the number of about one hundred who rep

resented eve ry department of woman’s work in Phil

ade lphia,educational

,charitable

,phi lanthrop ic and

reformato ry. Dean Bodley rece ived the guests and

introduced them to the Brahmin ladie s ; later, i n

the hal l she de l ivered t he publ ic words of welcome

to the Pundita and at i ts c lose presen ted the t e

nowned strange r to a large audience of l ad ie s and

gentlemen who had assembled to l isten whi le she

addressed them on “ The Women O f India.

”The

events of the two days engaged publ ic attention to

an unlooked- for degree and in re sponse to this fact

and that the intere st in these love ly and gifted

representat ives of India might be foste red,Dean

Bodley, early i n Apri l following, prepared a dainty

l i t tle pamphle t en titled “ The We lcome to Pun

1 70 RAC HEL L ITTLER BODLEY.

dita Ramabai, which was a comple te record of

the two even ts— the graduation of Dr. J oshee,

and the We lcome at Associat ion Hal l . This l i tt le

missive was widely distribu ted throughout Ame rica

and Asi a ; i ts compile r taking especial pains to oh

tain from the Hindoo ladies the postal addre ss of

the ir re lat ive s and friends that she might send i t

by mai l to as many as migh t thus be reached in

India. Contact with Western civi l izat ion on the

part of both , and Chri stian bapti sm as regarded

Ramabai, had made them outcasts among thei r

kindred,but i t was desired that in the land of

the ir birth i t might be known that American women

che ri shed and l oved them . Out of the hal f-dozen

C opies mai led to England, one was proffe red for

the acceptance of Her Maj esty t he Queen,Empress

of India,through the good office of the Legation

of the U n ited S tates . The correspondence of the

dean was enriched,and the summer rendered

memorable in her l ife by a prompt response from

Windsor Castle,writ ten by the Queen’s private

secre tary,S ir General Hen ry F. Ponsonby. By

command of the Queen thanks were re turned for

1 7 2 RAC HE L L ITTLE R BODLE Y.

subsequent to the A. B. at graduation . At the

Col lege Commencement of 18 7 1 , th ree of i ts

alumna! were se lected upon whom to confe r the

first honor of the kind,of wh ich trio Prof. Bodley

was one .

In 1879 the degree of M . D . was conferred by

the Woman’s Medical Col lege of Pennsylvania.

In 1873 she was e lected a corresponding membe r of

the Cincinnati Socie ty of Natura l H istory ; in 1876,

a corresponding member of the New York Acad

emy of Science s,and during the same year a mem

ber of The American Chemical Socie ty located in

New York City . Early i n 1874 i t was proposed

in the columns of T/ze American C/zemist to cele

brate the centennial of chemistry in August of

that year, th is date be ing chosen in honor of t he

discove ry of oxygen by Dr. Joseph Priestley in An

gust,1 7 74 ; suggestion s as to me thods and place

were sol icited. Prof. Bodley had only t he year

previous,made a pilgrimage to t he grave ofD r.

Priestley at Northumberland . And she proposed

that the Centenn ial gather ing be he l d at tha t

p lace . I t was her suggest ion which de termined

RAC H E L L ITTLE R BODLE Y. 1 73

t he locat ion of t he meeting and accordingly “ a

reunion of Ame rican chemists for mutual ex

change of ideas and obse rvations was he ld,

whose proceedings fi l l a volume of over two hun

dred page s,and at which Prof. Bodley was e lected

first Vice-Presiden t,and was the only lady upon

whom such honor was conferred . In 1880 She

was elected a member of the venerab le Frankl in

Insti tute of Ph ilade lph ia i n t he winte r fol low ing

She was i nvi ted to de l ive r S ix of the lectures of the

regu lar course of the inst itu te , wh ich She did , t ak

ing for her subject Household Chemistry.

”

In January,1882 , She was chosen a member of

the Publ ic Educational Socie ty of Philade lph ia , and

in February was e lected School D i rector of the

twen ty-n inth School Section of Ph iladelphia,i n

which capacity She se rved acceptably for three

years. In 1883 She was appointed one of seven

women visitors to assi st the Board of Public Char

i tie s of the S tate of Pennsyl vania in visi ting and

i nspecting such in stitution s in t he county of Phi l

ade lphia as came under the i r supervision .

I t is not too much to say that every year S ince

1 74 RAC HEL L ITTLE R BODLE Y.

her residence in Philade lph ia Dr. Bod ley’s influ

ence has grown stronger and been more percep t i

ble,but i t has not been l imited to that ci ty ; i t has

become world-w ide through those who have car

ried away with them he r helpful instruction s and

her heal thful Spiri t. The e lements of he r succe ss

have not al l been pecu l iar to herse lf,bu t have

Simply been appreciated and improved. Some of

these have been good heal th,acute powers of ob

se rvation,a refined and modest manne r

,careful

ness in de tai l s,a systemat ic divi sion of t ime, and

an orderly arrangemen t of material .

For some years She has been the head of a

modest but sunny home in the vicin i ty of the col

lege build ing whose central figure i s her aged

mothe r who,having finished her work, awai ts

t ranquil ly by her daughter’s s ide the summons to

“ come up highe r.’ Here in her own home the

Dean each autumn holds a reception in honor of

the incoming college class and here throughout

the year come and go those from near and from

far who are busy about the world’s work.

1 76 C ANDAC E WH E E LE R .

p ing thei r pe tal s,one by one

,on the open pages

of Robe rt Louis S tevenson’s A Ckild’s Garden of

Eve rything about the studio reminds me of a

gir l’s grace and de l i cacy,and I am not surprised

to learn that i t is the workshop of M rs. Wheeler’s

daughter,the artist

,Dora Whee le r.

But here the mothe r comes i n to we l come us ;

she i s a happy-faced,attractive woman

,w i th a

cordia l manner and a W insome smile . S he i s to

Show us t he arti sti c fabrics and needlework of the

famous house . These art -cloths are of the best

in qual i ty ; the s i lks are pure , and t he colors fade

le ss. The work of needle and shutt le i s “ done

upon honor.”

We especial ly have come to look a t t he now

famous Tapestries, wh ich are unsurpassed if not

unequal led in modern time s,andwe are conscious

of a feel ing of pride that they are the thought of

a woman , and of an American woman . One of

t he most beautiful in design is known as “ The

Penelope,

”a love ly Greek creature pul l ing out by

lampl igh t the work she has done by day, from the

M RS . C AN DAC E W H E E LE R.

180 C ANDAC E WH E E LE R .

The former is executed upon a salmon p ink ground inshades of flesh tint, very pale green and whi te. The mind—or t he sou l , Psyche, i f tha t be preferred— is represented

by a winged female figure, rising up slowly in a dreami ly

ascending l ine, l i ke curl ing smoke, through t he rosy mists

of a warm morning, her garment st i l l tra i l ing along t he

earth, her gossamer wings of a pale, broken green, expand

ing in t he mi ld air of a new-born day.

Whi le in Psyche we have t he roseate hues of amorning

vei led by t he vapors rising from t he earth, the W inged

Moon, al though execu ted upon a ground of t he same color,g ives us t he feel ing of a perfect evening. A s t o t he com

posi t ion, we have again a S l ight ly draped female figure, this

t ime with Slender birds’ wings. The lat ter, of pale yel low,are folded around and behind t he figure, and assume a form

suggest ing t he crescent of t he young moon. The figure,thus bedded upon it s own wings, floats in t he calm evening

sky, in which are sl ight indi cat ions of blu ish or v iolet clouds,and of stars. Pa int ing, whether in oil or in water-colors,seems incapable of adequate ly rendering this superterrestrial

beauty. In th is creat ion of t he needle and t he loom , how

ever, there is a very po tent suggest ion, t he best ye t given,of t he g lor ious effect hinted at .”

One natural ly inquires how th i s need le-woven

tapest ry i s made . Mr. Koehler explains thus

“ U pon heavy si lk canvas of rather loose and coarsetexture t he design is produced, or woven as i t were, by

introducing threads of t he colors needed along t he woof upon

C ANDAC E WH E E LE R. 18 1

t he face. The material which serves as a bas is, special ly

made for t he purpose, is in i tself very beaut iful , and, as t he

woof and t he warp are usual ly of d ifferent colors, deve lops

a play of changing tints, which, ai ded by t he ri ch g loss of

t he si lk , gives i t a l i fe not t o be otherwise attained. As

t he color of t he ground can never be whol ly suppressed i t is

easi ly seen that i t fixes t he keynote of t he scale t o be em

ployed, and thus keeps t he art is t wi thin certain decorat ivebounds, however strong may be his or her tendency toward

real ism. The del i cacy of gradat ion that can be obtained by

t he introduction of threads, e i ther of one color or of several

colors twisted together, along t he woof, is qu i te ext raordi

nary. As a practi cal advantage of these tapestr ies, i t is

worth noting that they are absolutely moth proof, as nothing

but S i lk, and occasional ly threads of gold and si lver, enterinto the ir composi t ion.

”

Of course any one of these tapestr ie s should com

mand the large price belonging to fine-art objects

— and a thousand dol lars is hardly i ts legit imate

value . One conside rat ion greatly enhances thi s

value , looking at t he tape stry as ide from its dec

orat ive qual i ty— that i t furnishe s remunerative

labor to numbers of women . Mrs . Wheeler and

her daughte r have in many d irect ions proved them

selve s bene factors to the i r sex, whil e they have

greatly deve loped the art istic taste of our country,

182 C ANDAC E WHEELER.

rai sing the needle and the shuttle to the rank of

the brush and pigment and t he sculptor’s ch ise l .

Do you ask how was th is woman , a mother with

home dutie s,led in to thi s l ine of work

,which not

only has made her famous, and her daughter, but

have been helpful to thousands in t he way of se lf

support ! Le t us look back along her l ife and see .

Born i n Delaware County,New York

,of N ew

England parentage,she was one of e ight ch i ldren

,

each one of whom ,

” says a friend of t he fami ly,

has reason to be proud and thankfu l for the

chance of inheri tance of such characters as the

parents . The father was as good as the prophe t

E l ijah,andas fe rvent as Paul

,andwithal possessed

of what we now cal l the ‘art istic tempe rament.’

He had a passionate love of eve rything beautifu l

i n nature,or in the inte rior world of thought

,and

so fine a re l igious andmoral nature,that he real ly

became the conscience of the community. The

mother,sti l l l iving at e ighty-six, i s the impersona

t ion of that Yankee gift wh ich Mrs. S towe cal l s

‘ facul ty,

’al l of which was exercised in try ing to

keep her ch ildren up to her own and t he father’s

1 84 C ANDAC E WHE E LE R.

i n due time,adding themselve s to the numbe r of

country boys who so often take the i r place s i n t he

fron t rank of successful merchants .

In her unaccustomed city- l ife,with all the pleas

ant country sights and sounds los t to her,all nat

u ra l beauty blotted out,no sunse ts or mountai n

tops or blossoming pastures,nothing seemed beau

t iful to our young countrywoman outside of he r

home- l ife,unti l S he suddenly found that i t was t he

beneficent province of art to create beauty for those

who had lost nature . Yet a picture to her was at

first a ve ry inadequate subst i tute for the unrol l

ment of an evening sky, with all the dusky val leys

of the De laware lying in pe rspective .

The love of art and the companionsh ip of artists

in t ime became a part of the family- l ife . The

S tud io-buildings were h ives of friends ; and unde r

this gen ial social influence young M rs. Whee ler

began to pain t. An “ i nstinct for color ” proved

to be one of he r natural gi fts, and with the eri t i

cism from the art ists who were foremost among

our American pa in ters, i t was easy to form a h igh

standard and work toward i t. Her own friend

C ANDAC E WHE E LER. 1 85

liness had made art ists he lpful and friendly,

and she rapidly expanded in the sunny atmos

phere .

Fortunate ly she had a lways drawn ; even from

the t ime when t he stalk of t ig er~ lilies she at

tempted was h igh enough to look down upon her

l i tt le hands. She had long ag o come to know

eve ry e xpre ssion of every plant,for she had l ived

with them,and had he ld her fathe r’s hand while

S he gazed up at the transparent cr imson he ll of

color which t he meadow l i ly made be tween her

and the Sky, or t he fie ry pink wh ich t he wild rose

showed with t he sun behind it. She knew at j us t

what s tage of growth the timothy-grasses threw

out purple,feathery seeds

,and every curve and

angle of t he blade and stem ; and al l th i s digested

and assimi lated knowledge of color and form

he lped her rapidly on now a t her easel .

After some years of c ity- l ife,Mr. and M rs.

Whee ler made a country home on Long Island

for the i r grow ing ch ildren, and ca l led i t Nestle

down,

”an appropriate name for t he home of four

l i t tl e people,who

,l ike the ir mothe r

,loved the big

186 C ANDAC E WHEE LE R.

trees,the rustle of green leaves, the sunshine and

a quie t home nest.

Twice the family made long soj ourns in Europe ,

where they al l studied toge ther, music, l i terature ,

the languages and art ; the mother as enthusiast ic

a student as her chi ldren,and wel l-nigh as youth

ful in her fee l ings and sympath ie s.

When they re turned to New York from the i r

second visi t to Europe,Mrs. Whee ler’s work for

the outside world began . The condit ion s of l ife

i n America had been changing Since her youth .

S he saw men so busy in t he hard struggle for

place and succe ss that fewer married,and those

who did,could maintain on ly the ir immediate fam

ilIes, so that vast numbers of women were left

without home s and the means of support.

Of the se women those who had accompl ish

ments zealously tr ied to turn them to account .

They taugh t music ; made fancy article s ; painted

l i ttle picture s ; concocted all sorts of tempting con

veniences and sold them to the ir friends,or the ir

friends’ friends,in an anxious

,unsuccessful way.

Many of these women were t he friends of Mrs.

C ANDAC E WHE E LE R. 189

Whee le r, and S he was i n sympathy with each .

This state of things at large became at last thor

ough ly borne i n upon her,and then he r mother’s

New England facul ty,and he r father’s zea l for

he lping o thers suddenly clasped hands, rose up

wi th i n her,and examined t he times for a remedy.

“Why not,

” said Mrs . Wheeler, bring everyth ing

that any woman can make,and needs to se l l

,into

a Shop,and le t eve rybody come and buy wha t

they real ly wan t,and pu t an end to this forcing of

the wrong thing upon the wrong person ! ”

But who would pay the rent, and attend to the

store M rs. Wheeler was equal to t he emergency.

She cal led toge the r a few of t he best and the rich

e st women of New York,and

“

asked for Opin ions.

Everybody had seen the want,eve rybody was glad

to hear of a remedy. Then Mrs . Whee le r sat

down at herdesk and wrote a circular and printed

i t at her own expense,te l l ing the women of New

York that i t was proposed to form a large and

influent ial associat ion for the purpose of es tablish

ing a place for the exhibi tion and sale of “ sculp t

u res,pain tings

,wood-carvings

,pain tings upon

I 90 C ANDAC E WHEELER.

slate,porce lai n and potte ry, art and ecclesiastical

needle-work,tapestry and hangings

,

”wkick work

skal l be done by women.

About two hundred women responded to this

circular,and they formed themse lves in to the

New York Socie ty of Decorat ive Art. They took

a house and made the Socie ty a blessing and a

success,by enlarging the range of th ings women

could do . China pain t ing,needle-work

,decoration

upon wood and othe r minor arts were thoroughly

taugh t. Mrs. Whee ler gave her time and thought

and hear t ful ly to the work.

Soon arose the quest ion What Shal l we

do with inartist ic labor ! ” So many des ired to

earn a l ivel ihood,but had received no artistic

train ing. There must be a Shop where such work

could be rece ived,and Mrs . Will iam G. Choate ,

Mrs. Wheele r and others proceeded to form a

“Woman’s Exchange . A S Mrs . Whee le r was the

Corresponding Secre tary of the Decorat ive Ar t

Socie ty,she succeeded in encouraging women in

many other ci ties to form auxil iarie s and ex

changes. N ow there are few American ci tie s

192 C ANDAC E WH E E LE R.

and mate rial wh ich would give color or effect,and

every method which would express drawing and

perspective,were considered

,both broadly andmi

nu t e ly. The resul t was a landscape with color,

foreground , middle distance and pe rspective— ih

embroide ry .

To Mrs. Whee le r the development of a school

of American embroide ry meant more than me re

sti tche ry,howeve r beautiful . I t meant the train

ing of bold strong de signe rs,t he teach ing of girl

art - students how to turn the ir knowledge in a

d irect ion where i t was needed , and with a needle

instead of a brush to treat texti le s with a feel ing

belonging to pictures. A lready a bette r kind of

talent has been deve loped and has been brough t

to bear upon a branch of work that i s pure ly fem

in ine,and with a re sul t that i s a great gain to dec

orat ive art . Yes,from the “ Associated Artists ”

have resul ted the importan t add itions to the art of

this country ; t he needlewoven tapestrie s, and the

manufacture of as beautiful drapery, upholstery

and wal l-hanging fabrics as are made in t he world

to-day. Careful study of ancient tex ti les, carefu l


se lection of the bes t qual i t ie s they possess, and

careful pursui t of appropriate designs for mode rn

fabrics and missing them ,bold creation of beau

tiful forms— have made the “ Associated Arti sts’

Texti le s ” known among artists and art -lovers at

home and abroad .

The fol lowing incident Shows what Mrs .Whee le r

has accomplished in decorative design . Messrs.

Warren and Fulle r,some t wo or three years ag o,

offered two thousand dol lars in prize s for the best

wa l l-papers,the j udge s to be three of the most

prominent arch i tects and decorators of New York .

Mrs. Whee ler prepared one design,which had

bee,honey-comb, and clove r as motive ; he r

daughter Dora,one ; and Miss Clarke

,a young

lady who had studied wi th them from the begin

n ing of the i r work,anothe r. S ixty designs were

sent from Ge rmany, England and France,and two

hundred othe r de sign s were accepted for t he com

peti tion . Mrs . Wheeler took the first prize of

one thousand dol lars,Miss Whee le r

,Miss Clarke

and Miss Townsend,the second

,th ird and fourth .

Four women took all the prizes

194 C ANDAC E WHE ELER.

She herse lf be l ieve s that one of the most im

portan t th ings she h as done is to teach women

that they must b ring perseverance,character and

teachableness,as wel l as techn ical sk i l l to thei r

work in the world.

”

Back of he r own wonde rful executive abi l i ty

and knowledge, she has great kindness and sym

pathy, without which no person can be a good

teacher. She has,says a lady who has worked

with her for years,

“ the biggest heart in the world.

She usually give s one afternoon each week to talk

with those women who wish to do good and re

munerat ive work,and are glad to come to her from

distan t ci tie s for suggestions.

There has been anothe r reason for her doing

human itarian work. The death of her oldest

daughter,a love ly young mother

,made an act ive

l ife, one that took her out of herse lf and her sor

row,a necessi ty to her. How often God plan s

great work for h is creatures,i n a way qui te differ

ent from the ir own careful ske tching !

Mrs . Whee le r has done much other public work.

S he has been one of the managers of Cooper In

196 C ANDAC E WHE E LE R.

up to bed, one with a dol l in he r arms, and the

arti st-son , Durham,now grown to manhood

,with

a toy gun in h is hand . The par lor is in brown

and gold hues,the frieze

,fleur-de- l i s on mat ting.

The l ibrary i n C opper and rob in’s-egg blue, is

ri ch in books,and pictures

,many of them remem

brances from authors and ar ti sts. The mott o of

the house is engraved ove r the mant le

“ W ho l ives merri ly, he l i ves mighti ly ;W i thout’en g ladness avai le th no treasure.

The din ing- room especial ly inte res ted me from it s

wal l-paper, for which Mrs . Whee le r rece ived her

thousand-dollar prize,the exquisite ch ina on eve ry

hand,and he r pa in tings on e ither side of the Side

board of mul le in and cat -tai l s. Not less invi ting

were t he Sleeping-rooms, whe re the furni shings

Showed t he exquisite taste of mother anddaughte r.

Mr. Wheeler has a right to fee l proud of his fam

i ly,as he evidently does . The pe t of the family

must not be le ft out ; Ponto, a great dog, ye l low

color with inte l l igent white face,given when a

puppy,by the monks of S t . Bernard

,to General


Grant, and afterward to the Wheele r family by

General Badeau.

The i r summer home on t he t op of t he Catski ll

Mounta ins,must be no less charming than N es

t ledown.

” They cal l i t “ Penny- royal ;” “ be

cause,

”say i ts owners, i t scarce ly cost a penny

,

”

and “ because,

”say t he friends who visi t there ,

“ i t i s t he most royal place they ever saw.

”

Thus in the prime of her womanhood,Mrs .

Wheeler has come to success along t he way of

noble thought for othe rs,by w i se use of her time

,

by careful deve lopment of he r own natural taste s

and gifts, and by a cheerful courage that of i tse lf

presage s success . And though i t be her dai ly

work to plan,to d irect

,to govern

,to buy and to

se l l and to estimate careful ly and safe ly,t o be a

good business woman as we l l as an art ist and a

dreame r of dreams of beauty,She has kept he r

womanly individual ity and the greatest charm of

woman , lovableness.

CHAPTER ! .

C LARA BARTON.

BELIEVE I have neve r looked upon a happier

face than that of Clara Barton . The unse lfish

heart,the hopefu l nature

,the helpfu l spiri t

,the

defini te purpose to b less the world,are al l revealed

in t he rad iance of that face .

And hers has been an eventfu l l ife . A New

England girl , born in North Oxford , Mass ., the

youngest of a large family, enj oying the glee of

snow-Sl iding, and the gentle gathering of wi ld

flowers in the summe r sunshine,she came care

le ssly to he r e leven th year ; then a great dut y

broke in upon th is gladsome gi rlhood .

A brother,by a terrible accident

,became for

some years an inval id . And to the lot of the

buoyant Clara i t fe l l to nurse h im day and n igh t

for nearly two years, taking on ly one half day for

198

C LA RA BA RTON. 2 O 1

recreation . Who could know then that the girl

was al ready fitting for heroic deeds by the side of

dying soldiers,both in Europe and America ; that

she was beginn ing that work which was to make

he r name forever remembe red and cher ished !

Truly, a hand leads us though we may not fee l i t,

and the way is O pened for us to walk in,though

we may not see our guide .

When Clara was sixteen She began to teach

school,the natura l occupat ion for an energe t ic

,

busy,conscientious

,we l l- tra ined New England

g irl . Late r,she took up a fu l l course of study

at Cl inton,N. Y.

,and then wen t back to he r

But Miss Barton seemed always to be reach ing

out to do t he hard things in l ife ; the things which

othe rs shrank from taking hold of— not but that

S he shrank too ; ye t as she said years afte rward,

when She was the only woman among t he swamps

and sands of Morri s I sland,

“Why,somebody had

to go and take care of the soldiers, so I went.

In 1853 She undertook a free school in Borden

town,N. J . There was a strong prej udice agains t

202 C LARA BARTON.

such a school ; She was assured it would prove a

fai lure, bu t she be lieved in it, and said she would

assume the re sponsibi l i ty for three months at her

own expense . She began with S ix scholars in an

old building,made this l i tt le school grow into two

large ones,and i ts influence secured the e rect ion

of a fine building with five hundred pupils on the

rol l .

Worn with the ardent labor— as who is not that

gives genuine sympathy and devotion to a work !

— she resigned,and went to Washington for res t

among re lat ives,and to l ive awh i le in a milde r

cl imate . While the re,some embarrassments hav

ing deve loped in the Paten t Office , Miss Barton

was recommended to the Commissioner as one

who was honest,capable and thorough ; and for

three years She labored fai thfully in that new field

but was removed during the Buchanan administra

tion,because she was said to be a “ Black Repub

l ican . She was re in stated,but resigned at the

beginn ing of the Civi l War,for a broade r work.

When the S ixth Massachuse tts Regiment ar

rived in Washington,from the bloodshed in Balti

2 04 C LARA BARTON.

that eve ry true sold ier wil l respe ct you and your

e rrand .

”

But when She offe red herse lf to go beyond the

l ine s,there was no place for her. Woman- l ike

she made a place. She went to Assistant Quarter

maste r-General Rucke r,with tears on he r face .

His generous spirit re sponded,for he be l ieved

that a true woman could safe ly and properly go

anywhere,and be God’s min ister ing angel

,and

he gave her a Godspeed .

”

And then,says Miss Lucy Larcom , i n O ur F a

mous W omen,i n a ske tch of Miss Barton’s work !

W e may catch a

'

g limpse of her at C hant i l ly— in t he

darkness of t he ra iny midnight bending over a dying boywho took her support ing arm and soothing vo i ce for his

s ister’s— or fal l ing into a brief Sl eep on t he we t ground in

her tent , almost under t he fee t of fly ing cavalry ; or rid ing

in one of her train of army-wagons towards another field ,subdu ing by t he way a band of mut inous teamsters into her

firm friends and al l ies ; or at t he terrible bat t le of Ant ie t ar’n

(where t he regu lar army-suppl ies did no t arr ive t i l l three daysafterward) furnishing from herwagons cordials andbandagesfor t he wounded , making gruel for t he faint ing men from t he

meal in which her medicines had been packed , extract ing

with her own hand a bu l let from t he cheek of a wounded

soldier, tending t he fal len al l day, wi th her throat parched

C LARA BARTON . 205

and her face blackened by sul phurous smoke , and at night,when t he surgeons were dismayed a t finding themse lves left

wi th only one hal f-burnt cand le amid thousands of bleeding ,dying men, i l lumining t he field wi th cand les and lanterns

her fore thought had suppl ied . N o wonder they cal led her

t he ‘ Angel of t he Bat tlefield .

’

“ W e may see her at Frederi cksburg, attending t o t he

wounded who were brought t o her, whe ther they wore t he

blue or t he gray. O ne rebel officer, whose death-agonies

she soothed , besought her wi th h is last breath not t o cross

t he ri ver, in his grat i tude betraying t o her that t he move

ments of t he rebe ls were only a ruse t o draw t he U nion

troops on t o destruc t ion. I t is need less t o say that she fol

lowed t he soldiers across t he Rappahannock , undaunted byt he dying man’s warning . Andwe maywatch her after t he

defeat, when t he hal f- s tarved , half-frozen soldiers were

brought t o her, having great fires bu i l t t o lay them around,adminis tering cordials, and causing an old chimney t o be

pu l led down for bri cks t o warm them wi th, whi le she her

sel f had but t he she l ter of a tattered tent between her andt he p iercing winds

O ne of her friends for many years,General J . J .

E lwe l l of Cleve land, O .

,a brave and noble soldier

on many batt lefie lds,give s me th is i l lustration of

her brave ry

Miss Barton once came ve ry near fal l ing into

t he hands of the enemy rathe r than abandon a

de sperate ly wounded boy . The inciden t occurred

206 C LARA BARTON.

i n the re treat of Pope du ring the seve ral days

fighting at the se cond ba ttle of BiIl l Run .

Miss Barton was about stepping on the last

car conveying the wounded from the fie ld with the

enemy’s cava l ry in Sigh t, and shot and Shel l from

the ir guns fal l ing in our disordered ranks,when a

sold ie r told her there was left behind in t he pine

bushes,where he had fal len

,a wounded young

soldie r,that he could not l ive , and that he was

cal l ing for h i s mother.

She fol lowed her gu ide to where the boy lay.

I t was growing dark and ra ining. She rai sed him

up and quiet ly soothed him . When he heard her

voice he said in h is de l i rium,

‘Oh ! my mother has

come . Don’t leave me to die i n these dark woods

alone do stay with me don’t leave me .

’

“ A t that momen t an oflicer C ried out to her

Come immediate ly, or you wil l fal l into the hands

of t he rebs— they are on us.

’

We l l,take this boy.

’

No,

’ said the officer,‘ there is no transporta

t ion for dying men . We have hardly room for the

l iving. Come quick.

’

208 C LARA BARTON .

then by our forces. A cup of good water was no

where to be found . We l l s were shal low and the

wate r brackish ; almost deadly in i ts characte r.

The Siege was in hot weather,and the cl imate

mal arious. Eve ry part of the i sland could be

reached by the guns of Sumpte r,Wagne r

,and

other forts. Here Miss Barton stayed,and on

the n ight of the assaul t when we los t fifteen hun

dred men in an hour, she was the re to succor t he

wounded . She soon become dang erouslv i l l in

her tent. I appealed to her to retu rn to Port

Royal,or She would certain ly die . Her answer

was,

‘ Do you think I wil l leave he re during a

bombardmen t

Afte r a t ime,She was carried away

,almost by

force,t o a more heal thy local i ty

,where she was

i l l for a long period. While on Morris Island She

helped care for General A. C . Voris of Oh io,

General Legget t of Connecticu t, who losing h i s

leg would probably have d ied h ad i t not been for

her timely help,and many other officers .

General Voris says ! “ I was shot with an E nfield

cartridge with in one hundred and fifty yards of

C LARA BARTON. 209

the fort, and so disab led that I could not go for

ward. I was in an awful predicament,perfe ctly

exposed to cani ste r from Wagner,and She l l from

Gregg and Sumpter in front,and the enfilade

from James Island . I tried to dig a trench in the

sand with my sabre,in to which I might crawl

,but

the d ry sand would fal l back i n place abou t as

fast as I cou ld scrape i t out wi th my narrow im

plement. Fai l ing in this,on al l-fours I crawled

toward the lea of the beach,which I hoped migh t

she l te r me a l i t tle,which was but a few yards off.

A charge of caniste r al l round me aroused my

reve rie to thought s of action ; I abandoned the

idea of taking the fort and orde red a retreat of

myself, wh i ch I undertook to execute in a most

unmartial manner on my hands and knees Spread

out l ike a turtl e ; I moved toward the rear at the

Slowest pace possible and say that I made any

progress.

“ After working th is way for a half-hour and

making perhaps two hundred yards , two boys of

the S ix ty-second Oh io found me and carried me to

our first paral le l, where had bee n arranged an ex

2 1 O C LARA BARTON.

tempore hospi tal . After resting a whi le I was put

on t he horse of my Lieutenan t Colone l,from which

he had been Shot that n igh t,and star ted for the

lower end of the island, one and a hal f mile s off,

where better hospital arrangements had been pre

pared . Oh !what an awful r ide that was ! A sol

dier wa lked along each Side of t he horse to hold

me from fa l l ing off. Eve ry step taken sen t a

pang through my tortured body. But I got there

at last,by midnigh t. I had been on duty for

forty- two hours wi thout S leep,unde r t he most try

ing circumstances,and my sou l longed for Sleep

,

which I got in this wise ! an army blanket was

doubled and la id on t he soft side of a plank, with

an overcoat for a pi l low, on wh ich I laid my worn

out body.

And such a sleep ! I d reamed that I heard

the Shouts of my boys i n victory, that t he rebe l

l ion was broken, that the U nion was saved, tha t

we were a united people again , and that I was at

my old home and that my dear wife was t rying to

soothe my pa in ; i n my rapture I tried to Shout,

but my throat was husky,my l ips parched

,and my

2 1 2 C LARA BARTON.

nouncement was made that she would be the re,

she arrived, and to her amazement found four

bushel s of letters awaiting her.

Soon after th i s she returned to Washington , es

t ablished a Bureau of Records of Missing M en,

employed seve ral cle rks to assist her,and com

pi led from hospi tal and prison-rol l s,and from

burial- l i sts as complete a record as possible .

Later she visited Andersonvi lle,and by the aid of

a U n ion pri soner, who being engaged in hospital

se rvice had prese rved the pri son-rol l s,She ident i

fied al l but about four hundred of the thirteen

thousand graves of soldiers buried there,placing

a head-board at each grave,and a fence around

the cemete ry.

For all th i s work she rai sed he r own money,

Congress re imbursing her afterwards,by an ap

propriat ion of fifteen thousand dol lars . During

these four or five years of labor,She lect ured ft c

quently both East and West upon e xpe riences of

t he war, holding audiences Spe l lbound by her elo

quen t and sympathet ic reci tal s .

In 1869 , broken in heal th , She turned to Europe

C LARA BARTON. 2 13

for res t, under the shadow of the A lps at Geneva.

But there anothe r work was brought unto her very

doors. Five years previously,an In ternationa l

Association cal led t he Red Cross Socie ty ” had

been formed at Geneva,whose object was t he

lessening of t he horrors of war,by rende ring neu

tra l al l surgeons,chapla ins

,and othe r pe rsons

engaged in caring for t he wounded,of both friend

and foe,extending o ve r them t he perpe tua l she l ter

of the wh i te flag of truce .

The U ni ted S tate s h ad been sol ici ted to jo in

in th i s treaty among t he nat ions,but strange ly

enough seemed indifferen t. The leaders of the

Socie ty sought Miss Barton , and urged her to

in tere st he r country. This she promised to do.

But othe r work was close at hand . The Franco

Prussian war had begun . The Red Cross Com

mit t ee at Geneva came to Miss Barton again and

asked that she go at once wi th them to the battle

fie ld, and i l l though She was,she would not refuse .

Her strong executive hand,her busy organiz ing

systematiz ing brain were fe l t a t once . When S tras

burg capitulated and twenty thousand were home

2 14 C LARA BARTON.

less and starving, She provided material s for thirty

thousand garments to be made by poor women,who

needed to earn money for the ir dai ly bread ; then

distributed the garments. S he aided the starving

people at Me tz,and the wounded at Sedan . She

ente red Par is on foot during the days of t he Com

mune,distribut ing food and clothing to t he needy.

Once,when

,eage r for bread

, so that the mob over

come the pol ice, she came out of he r house and

spoke to them ; they said“God ! i t i s an ange l

,

”

and became quie t and orderly .

While in Germany she spent much time with

the Grand Duche ss of Baden,the daughter of Em

perorWil l iam ,a noble woman

,and

,l ike the Em

press Augusta,devoted to the Red Cross Socie ty.

Miss Barton says of th is regal woman ! “ Her

many and beauti ful castle s,with the i r magnificent

grounds,were at once transformed in to mil i tary

hospital s,and he r ent ire court

,with hersel f at i t s

head,formed into a committee of supe rintendence

and organi zed for rel ie f. I have seen a wounded

Arab from the French armies, who knew no word

of any language but h is own , stre tch out h is arms

C LARA BARTON. 2 1 7

to he r in adoration and blessing as She passed his

The Grand Duche ss gave Miss Barton a bean

t iful Red Cross broach in gold and ename l,and

t he Empe ror gave her the I ron Cross, given only

to those who have done brave deeds on the fie ld

of battle .

In 1873 she re turned to Ame rica, and“ though

so i l l that through years of suffering,”she says , I

forgot how to walk,I remembered my resolve

and my promise , abou t t he Red Cross Socie ty.

”

By much personal persuasion,t he Gove rnmen t was

at last brought to join i tsel f to the thirty-one S tates

al ready in the humane compact,and Pres ident

Garfie ld appoin ted Miss Barton President of the

American Association of the Red Cross .

She soon saw the need that in our country the

socie ty should act also in t ime of peace , and she

secured an amendment whereby calamitie s by fire,

flood , and othe r misfortunes cou ld be amel iorated

by t he aid of t he organizat ion .

Such m isfortune s came . In t he great fire s in

Michigan,i n the recent floods along the Missis

2 18 C LARA BARTON.

S ippi and Ohio r ive rs Miss Barton d ispensed t he

gifts of the American people ; now providing seeds

for fie lds,and goods for bu i lding homes anew, and

now sending a pretty dol l with these words pinned

to t he dress ! “ L i tt le Florence Jone s of Western

Springs,I l l .

,sends th is dol l to some l ittle girl five

years old,who has lost al l he r dol l ie s.” Truly,

said t he newspapers,

“ The flag of the Red Cross

has won the deepest confidence, l ove and re spec t

from the people on both Side s of four thousand

mile s of rive r.

Afte r the earthquake in Charle ston,Miss Bar

ton at once hastened thi the r with suppl ie s. Whi le

there , be ing invi ted to a reun ion of the Yate s Pha

lanx in I l l inois,She wrote to them !

And C harleston hersel f, standing thunderstruck, but

s t i l l manly, firm and brave , says, wi th bated breath ! ‘ W e

are stri cken, bu t i t was worth an earthquake t o us t o recei vet he sympathy and learn t he sp iri t of our N orthern countrymen and women. W e never knew them ti l l now ; the ircourage was great, bu t the ir magnanimi ty is greater. W e

thank God, t o-day, that we are one people , and one people

we wil l remain ; we would fight harder t o stay in t he U nion

than we ever d id t o g et ou t of i t.’ General Mann, tel l t he

old 3ot h this, and that a t last they are ful ly v ictorious, not

2 20 C LARA BARTON.

Woman’s Reformatory Prison at Sherborne,Mass.,

and won the highest confidence . As I was walk

ing wi th herone even ing through the hal ls,a young

convic t sprang out of bed,and stood half h idden

behind her grated door.

What i s i t !” said the kind voice of Miss

Barton .

I heard you coming,and I j ust wanted to look

at you ,”was the low response .

Passing two large le tter boxes,I asked the ir use.

One i s that they may drop le tters in to me , that

they may te l l me anything and everything. They

often wri te because they are so lonesome .”

Oh ! for such wardens in al l t he prisons of earth .

The othe r box i s for le tters which they may

wri te to the Commissioners about any compla in ts

they have to make ; and nobody can see what they

w rite .

’

Abundant honors have come to Miss Barton .

Queen Natal ie of Servia has conferred upon her

the Se rvian decorat ion of the RedCross,suspended

by red,white and blue ribbons— a compl iment to

t he U nion colors . The German survivors of the

C LARA BARTON. 2 2 1

Franco-Prussian war e le cted her a membe r of

the i r socie ty,and sent a

'

beautiful diploma. At

t he Opening of the World’s Exposition at New

Orleans,a day was given to the Red Cross S o

ciety, Miss Barton send ing a flag with the Red

Cross between the stars. A t the last Red Cross

gathering at Geneva, she rece ived a great ovat ion

from prominen t persons. Among two hundred dis

t ing uished guests at an official d inner, Miss Barton

was the only lady present. From the Woman’s

Re l ief Corps of the Grand Army of the Repub

l ic, she has rece ived a Malte se C ross ‘ suspended

from a bar pin , bearing the name Clara Barton .

The red Geneva cross wh ich drops over the ribbon

is of Cal iforn ia gold , Se t wi th a diamond sol itaire .

I n her e loquent response,Miss Barton said !

“ And i t is ne ither in vain nor too soon that you

learn your le ssons,for

,whether one w i l l or no

,the

t ime i s coming in the march of human progress

when you wil l be cal led to take a part in the di

rection of the Government under which you l ive.

Desired or not,wel l or i l l

,ve teran comrade s

,i t i s

coming. Wel l or i l l,si ste r comrades

,i t must be

222 C LARA BARTON.

so. The day is marching on when i t Shal l be a

part of you r duty as citizens to he lp judge of the

welfare of the nation,of the cause s and necessit ie s

for war,and to say of yourse lves wherefor you

hear and rear sons . I t can no more be stayed

than a tidal wave,and my charge to you

,my

siste r comrades, is that you learn your lessons

fai thful ly.

”

Surely,the world has been made bette r by the

l ife of Clara Barton .

2 24 A L IC E E. FRE E MAN.

eve ry wild flower known to New England blooms

a long t he banks. Here the anemones and viole ts

first Show the ir beauty in the early Spring,and he re

in t he autumn t he purple aste rs and the bri l l iant

golden-rod l inge r long af ter they have d isappeared

from t he ne ighboring meadows (as if to say we

cannot leave these Shady haunts andwalks) . The

whole scene is one of surpassing beauty and i t

would seem that nature wi th lavish hand had pre

pared i t for some grand purpose .

The steward into whose possession al l th is had

fal len,and who had for years been planting his

Vineyards and tree s andpreparing the grounds for

a family mansion wh ich Should crown andcomple te

the picture,had been saying to himse lf ! “ Soul

,

thou hast much goods la id up for many years, take

th ine ease,eat , drink and be merry .

”U nder the

Shade of these state ly trees he had Spent h is lei

sure hours wi th the beautifu l boy, his only son,

who was he i r to al l these proud acres. Here

w i th his own surpassing taste he had planned the

wa lks and drives and beau t ified t he lawns .

In an unlocked- for momen t th i s on ly son was

AL I C E E . FRE EMAN . 2 2 5

stricke n with a fatal d isease ; one week of sickness

ended his earthly l ife,and his fathe r

,the bri ll ian t

man of t he world, the successful lawye r, at the

acme of h is fame , i n t he heyday of l ife , bowed hi s

head in such overwhelming grief that h i s hai r

became white as snow i n one short week, and eve ry

plan and purpose was changed . His hope s and

prospects were buried unde r the green mound of

earth which covered that l ittle form around which

all t he interests of h i s l ife had clustered . Hence

forth every tree and smal le st flower spoke on ly of

hi s boy.

Thus bereft, he heard ou t of the desolate S ilence

a voice l ike the sound of many wate rs,a voice

which sti rred hi s inmost soul,Saying

,I have

othe r work for you t o do le t t he treasures which

I have committed to your keeping be used for fit

t ing othe r sons anddaughters to do t he great work

wh i ch must be done to save th is world from Sin,

and to make i ts waste places to bud and blossom

for other soul s as you have made your l i ttle spot

of earth to bring forth fru i t for one . Have I not

so loved t he world t hat I have given my only son

2 26 AL I C E E. FRE EMAN.

to redeem i t ! Thus cal led,the ready

was ! Here,Lord

,am I send me .”

For S ix years thi s man of God j ourneyed far and

near through the storms of win ter an d the heat of

summe r to consu l t eminent men and women as to

the wisest way to use hi s fortune for the highest

and broadest education of the young. A t length,

afte r these many wearisome j ou rneys, with utter

abandonmen t of ease and luxury,even of the

ordinary comforts of l ife , his resolution was formed

andhi s l ife-work begun . In 1872 the corner-stone

of Wel le sley Col lege was laid ; and a structure as

beau tifu l and comple te as any in the world has

arisen , for the purpose of giving to t he daugh te rs

of thi s count ry a broad and thorough Christian

educat ion.

“ Because , said the founde r of Welle sley,

“ educated Chri st ian women have more to do in

forming the Opinion s and making the character

of men than al l other influence combined , I wil l

build a hal l large enough to accommodate three

hundred girl s.”

His friends smiled at h is enthusiasm ,andthough t

2 28 AL IC E E. FREE MAN.

D r. James and El i zabeth Freeman and is the e ldest

of four chi ldren . Her fathe r,with a longing for

educat ion which noth ing could C heck,began hi s

professional studie s afte r the b irth of h is younges t

daughter,and th e youthful mother, only seventeen

years o lde r than he r daughter,was left with the

care of t he farm and the household affai rs wh ile

he r husband studied medicine in a neighboring

town ; so i t w i l l be seen that the daugh ter i s, by

an act of predestination,the ch ild of both zeal an d

cul ture .

While Miss Freeman was sti l l ve ry young Dr.

Freeman removed with hi s family to the l i tt le vi l

lage of Windsor,a charming Spot on the S usque

hanna,whose beautifu l natural scene ry fi l led the

ch ild w i th enthusiastic del igh t. She early began

to share the responsibi l itie s of the household and

became the nurse and constant companion of the

younger child ren her days were spent in teach ing

the l i ttle ones in the woods and fie lds the love of

wild flowers and of al l beautiful th ings in nature,

and thi s i s perhaps the Secre t of he r own ent husi

ast ic love for flowers and fern s and sunse t clouds ,

ALIC E E . F RE E MAN. 229

and th is the foun tain from which she drew that

e l ixir wh ich has thu s far kept her as young in fee l

ing and as fai r in face as when she roved ove r the

fields and meadows of the old farm and at six

years of ag e sat down on a mossy bank by the

roadside and wi th the th ree l i ttle ch i ldren fe l l fast

asleep. With remorsefu l fee l ings she hastened

with he r charge when She awoke,the baby in the

l i tt le wagon and the other two tagging behind,to

confess to her mothe r how unfai thful She had been,

and with what horror she contemplated the poss i

b i l ify that the ch ildren might have been stole n by

the gypsie s whil e she Slept. Thus early she began

to take upon herse lf the responsibi l itie s of l ife

and thus early began that conscien tious discharge

of l ife’s duties which has worked out for her a

character as beautiful as i t i s rare .

She spen t the years of he r happy childhood in

this picturesque vi l lage,and here at the old acad

emy she deve loped a love for study which made

i t inevitable that she Should desire to go to col lege .

About th i s t ime Michigan U nivers ity opened its

doors to women . At once Miss Freeman’s reso

230 AL IC E E . FREEMAN.

lut ion was taken . She entered the U nIversity

soon afte r,and was one of the p ioneers of the

hazardous expe riment of co-education . During

the four years of he r col lege- l ife her simpl ici ty and

directness of characte r,her thorough womanly self

respect,her fai thful scholarship and earnest Ch ri s

t ian Spiri t exerted an influence which cannot be

over-e stimated. Miss Freeman graduated in 1876

and afte r teaching three years in the West She

was cal led to the chair of H istory in We l lesley

Col lege. He r success in thi s department was so

marked,though she was but twenty- four years of

ag e, that the founde r of the Col lege often said

of her ! “ There i s the future President of Wel les

ley College .”

In 1880 the founder of We l lesley College,M r.

Henry F . Durant, died. The same year the Presi

dent of the Col lege was obl iged to leave on ac

count of i l l heal th . In the exigency of the moment,

Miss Freeman was invited by the trustees to act as

President unti l some one could be found t o fi l l the

p lace . I t had been predicted by wise men and

women al ike that there was not a woman in the

232 ALIC E E . FRE E MAN.

her own enthusiasm is contagious and eve ry stu

den t regards her as a personal sympathe tic friend

to whom she may go at al l hours for counci l and

comfort. She has a clarity of menta l Vi sion that

is rare ly equaled,and a balanced j udgment which

is se ldom quest ioned her keen insight into char

acte r enable s her to de tect anything wrong in the

l ife of a girl,andher ready tact and sympathy lead

her always to apply the right remedy.

During Miss Freeman’s admin istration the num

be r of studen ts has more than doubled . Four

large hal l s and two cottage s have been added and

nearly eve ry house in t he vil lage whe re the col lege

is located is fil led with students. Last year there

were ful ly one thousand appl icants, and at the

present moment the number of those who are

seeking admission to the col lege is large r than

ever before .

Miss Freeman,though de l icate in feature and

sl igh t i n figure,has a power of endurance whi ch

enable s her to accompl ish a great amoun t of work .

S he i s working out her own theories, t he most im

portan t of which she thus states to her girls

AL IC E E . F REE MAN. 233

God has made you after hi s own plan,and He

places you j ust where He wishes you to work with

Him to bring about the highest re sul ts for your

se lf He has give n you every opportuni ty. Make

yourse lf what you wil l remembe r i t l ies with you.

God can make no mistakes .”

One who has known her for many years says of

Miss Freeman !

She is especial ly esteemed for her quick sym

pathies, her sincere enthusiasm , her devotion to

the cause of higher educat ion,her capacity in

carrying out her convict ions, and particularly for

her most love ly Ch ristian C harity wh ich create s an

atmosphere of pur i ty and earnestne ss throughout

al l her work.

”

He r A lma Mate r, i n just acknowledgment of he r

work,has conferred upon her t he degree of Ph . D.

Columbia Col lege on the occasion of i ts semi-cen

t ennial conferred upon Miss Freeman w i th other

d istinguished l it erati and educators the degree of

Doctor of Le tters.

U niversityof C alifornla

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