# Representative women of New England/Eunice N. Frye

​EUNICE NICHOLS FRYE.— It was in Portland, Me., that State federation of clubs had its origin, and it was Mrs. Eunice Nichols Frye who first advocated the formation of such an alliance. Having attended the first meeting of the directors of the General Federation at Orange, N.J., in her official capacity as president of the Woman's Literary Union of Portland (organized in 1889),
​she was quick to foresee the benefits which a State organization would confer upon club women in Maine, the State whose motto is "Dirigo." She it was who invited representative club women to meet in her parlors to consult in regard to the advisability of such a step. Three -months later, September 23, 1892, the first State federation was formed, with nineteen clubs as charter members and Mrs. Frye its secretary. Other States soon followed this example, and the result has been most happy.
Mrs. Croly (Jennie June) said of Mrs. Frye, "She is the Alma Mater of clubs and club women of Maine, a woman of large heart and broad intelligence, who works toward the best end without any shadow of pettiness or self-seeking." As the press notices and reports of various literary and philanthropic movements in Portland testify to occasions when preliminary meetings were held in Mrs. Fryers parlors, so the subsequent accounts invariably tell of wise plans faithfully carried out for the general good. Mrs. Frye has a genius for organizing, working with indomitable energy and animation for present and future good.
Mrs. Frye was the first president of the Board of Directors of the Mary Brown Home, a highly useful institution founded on broad principles. This is a resting-place for sick and broken-down women, who have always been industrious, self-supporting, and self-respecting. It is unique in having, beside the regular directors, an advisory board of men and women, as well as a co-operative board of helpers from business houses where women are employed. This plan for an invalids' home was originated by a little band of Methodist women. Some members of the Universalist church next became interested, and finally all the churches took hold of the work. Mary Cobb was the pioneer worker, and Mrs. Brown (for whom the home is now called) made a practical beginning possible in the summer of 1894 by giving the use of her cottage at Trefethern's Landing. Later a cottage was purchased at 28 Revere Street, Portland. There was soon a demand for more than its twelve rooms, and a new and larger building has been built on the site of the ancient Bradley Meeting-house, a site which was a gift to the directors for that purpose. During the nine years over a hundred invalids and broken-down women had shelter and care, and all but seven of this number have been restored to health and have gone back to their work. The labor, the tact, the time and strength, to say nothing of the open purse which Mrs. Frye has had ready as the occasion has demanded in this particular service, show how much it has been a labor of love. How truly she is a philanthropist! One is not surprised to learn that she comes of strong Quaker stock.
Mrs. Frye was born at Vassal borough. Me., January 8, 1852, being the daughter of Caleb and Maria Nichols. Her father and mother were elders in the Vassalborough Society of Friends, and for years clerks of the business meetings. Always working in the interests of progress in the town, they were trustees from its organization of Oak Grove Seminary, a Friends' school at Vassalborough. Their daughter Eunice was mostly educated in that seminary, being a student there for years. She was for some time the principal of the Unitarian Friends' School at Orchard Park, N.Y., now a normal school. In her girlhood she spent several winters with her brother. Dr. Charles H. Nichols, superintendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane at Washington, D.C.
On June 15, 1880, Eunice Nichols became the wife of Mr. George C, Frye, a chemist and importer of surgical instruments. Her home in Portland has ever been noted for its cordial hospitality; for her husband, like herself, is of a genial nature, and delights in sharing his prosperity with others.
Mrs. Frye is vice-president at large of the National Dorothea Dix Association. Efficient women are always in demand, and because she is efficient she is busy, so busy that it seems Her life is but a working day, whose tasks are set aright."