# Woman of the Century/Elizabeth Boynton Harbert

​HARBERT, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton, author, lecturer and reformer, born in Crawfordsville, Ind., 15th April, 1843. She is a daughter of ​William H. Boynton, formerly of Nashua, N. H. Her mother was Abigail Sweelser, a native of Boston. Elizabeth was educated in the female seminary in Oxford, Ohio and in the Terre Haute Female College, graduating from the latter institution with honors in 1862. She published her first book, "The Golden Fleece," in 1867, and delivered her first lecture in Crawfordsvillc in 1869. She became the wife, in 1870, of Capt. W. S. Harbert, a brave soldier and now a successful lawyer. After their marriage they lived in Des Moines, Iowa, and there Mrs. Harbert published her second book, entitled "Out of Her Sphere." While living in Des Moines, Mrs. Harbert took an active part in the woman suffrage movement She succeeded in inducing the Republicans of Iowa to put into their State platform a purely woman's plank, winning the members of the committee appointed to prepare a platform for the State convention by her earnest and dignified presentation of the claims of ELIZABETH BOYNTON HARBERT. woman. Thus Mrs. Harbert earned the distinction of being the first women to design a woman's plank and secure its adoption by a great political party in a great State. In the winter of 1874 Mr. and Mrs. Harbert removed to Chicago, and soon afterwards they made their home in the suburb of that city called Evanston, where they now live. Mrs. Harbert was engaged to edit the woman's department of the Chicago "Inter-Ocean." She held that arduous position for eight years, and her name was made a household word throughout the West. Their family consists of one son and two daughters. Mrs. Harbert is an earnest worker in the cause of woman suffrage and is interested deeply in philanthropic and charitable enterprises. For two years she served as president of the Social Science Association of Illinois, an organization formed "to suggest plans for the advancement of industrial, intellectual, social, educational and philanthropic interests, to the end thai there may be better homes. schools, churches, charities, laws, and better service for humanity and God." She served as vice-president of the Woman's Suffrage Association of Indiana, as president of the Woman's Suffrage Association of Iowa, and twelve years as president of the Illinois Woman's Suffrage Association. She has been one of the board of managers of the Girl's Industrial School in South Evanston. She is connected with the association for the advancement of women known as the Woman's Congress. She is president of the Woman's Club, of Evanston. Notwithstanding all the work implied in filling so many important offices, she finds her greatest pleasure in her pleasant home and her interesting family. Besides their Evanston home, they have a summer cottage in Geneva Lake. Wisconsin, where they pass the summers. Mrs. Harbert is versatile to a rare degree. Her love of nature finds expression in music and poetry, and her interest in the unfortunate members of the community shows in her many charitable and philanthropic works. Throughout her career she has been self-forgetful in her desire to do for others. Her pen and voice have been ready to render praise and encouragement, and her eyes have been closed to ingratitude on the part of those for whom she has unselfishly labored, that a better spirit of cooperation might spring up among womankind. The crowning excellence and most prominent characteristic of Mrs. Harbert is her deep sense of patriotism. As a writer she is pointed, vigorous, convincing. She has now in press a third Dook, entitled "Amore."