# The Part Taken by Women in American History/Bunker Hill Monument Association

Bunker Hill Monument Association.
JENNIE CUNNINGHAM CROLY.
Mrs. Croly was born in Leicestershire, England, December 19, 1831. Her father, the Reverend Joseph Howes Cunningham, brought his family to the United States when Jennie was about nine years old. The latter was a precocious child and early showed her literary trend in little plays written in childhood. Her first production that was published appeared in the New York Tribune. Her taste for journalism grew rapidly and she filled many important positions on various of the New York newspapers for many years. Her pen name was "Jenny June." Her activity was remarkable and she extended her work to a number of the magazines. She edited and controlled many publications for a great number of years. Early in life she became the wife of David B. Croly, then city editor of the New York Herald, later managing editor of the New York World, and subsequently editor of the Daily Graphic. In all of these publications Mrs. Croly collaborated with her husband. In March, 1868, Mrs. Croly, "Fanny Fern," Alice and Phoebe Cary, Mrs. Charlotte B. Wilbour, Miss Kate Field, Mrs. Henry M. Field, Mrs. Botta and other women met in Mrs. Croly's home in New York and started the famous Sorosis with twelve charter members. This was one of the pioneer women's clubs of America and to Mrs. Croly should be given the credit of its inception. She served for fourteen years as its president. She was among those calling the Woman's Congress in New York in 1866, and again in 1869. She was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, of the Goethe Club, and vice-president of the Association for the Advancement of the Medical Education of Women. Her home was for many years a center of attraction for authors, artists, actors and cultured persons. Her writings, which continued until her death in 1901, would fill many volumes.
MRS. PHILIP N. MOORE.
The president-general of the Federation of Women's Clubs was born in Rockford, Illinois, and educated at Vassar College, at which institution she pursued a full mathematical and scientific course. The years from 1876 to 1879 she spent in travel and study abroad. Since her marriage she has resided in Kentucky and Missouri. She has been connected and actively interested in the St. Louis Training School for Nurses; is a member of the board of directors of the Providence Association and chairman of their district nurse work from its inception. She is vice-president of the St. Louis School of Philanthropy; is a charter member of the Wednesday Club, and was president of the Missouri Federation from 1901 to 1905; was first vice-president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs from 1904 to 1908. She is intensely interested in the musical growth of St. Louis and assisted in the formation of the Musical Club which brings to St. Louis the best artists in every line and is also devoted to the interests of a larger musical organization, the St. Louis Symphony Society, in which she is an active worker. She has been president of the National Federation of Musical Clubs. Mrs. Moore holds all educational influences to be of the greatest importance; from 1903 to 1907 she was president of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae and one of the ​ three alumnae trustees of Vassar College. She was appointed by the board of lady managers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, a member of the Superior Jury in which International Jury of Awards the right of membership was given for the first time to a representative of women. A woman of liberal culture and extensive information, she has wielded a large influence in various spheres of women's work. With quiet force and dignity she combines great executive ability and is an effective worker in every movement with which she is identified. She was elected president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs at their meeting, June 1908, in Boston. She traveled extensively in the interests of the federation going even to Panama to visit the clubs of the Canal Zone Federation.
MRS LAWRENCE MAXWELL.
Was born and educated at Ann Arbor, Michigan, meeting her husband, Mr. Maxwell, at the university. Mrs. Maxwell is an ex-president of the Cincinnati clubs and largely identified with the musical interests of Cincinnati. For seven years she has been president of the board of managers of the Widows' and Old Men's Home. Mrs. Maxwell was president of the local biennial board of Cincinnati when the meeting of the General Federation was held in that city in 1911. The success of this board is due largely to the uniform tact and courtesy of Mrs. Maxwell, whose wide club and social experience has been felt not only in Cincinnati but throughout the state. Mrs. Maxwell has a broad view of life and its duties, believing that a woman must prepare herself to reign in her home while dispensing the courtesies and sharing the enjoyments of social life, yet, she still must give a large share of time, strength and interest to the betterment of humanity.
MRS. EDWARD L. BUCHWALTER.
Mrs. Edward L. Buchwalter is one of the best-known club women in the country. She has been identified with the General Federation since the beginning and has attended every biennial. She was born in Ohio but her interests pertaining to women's clubs know no state lines. In 1S9S Mrs. Buchwalter was elected a director of the General Federation, serving two terms She was chairman of the Milwaukee biennial program committee, which for advanced thought has not been surpassed by any biennial program; here civil service reform and the responsibility of women as consumers were first discussed. Mrs. Buchwalter was chairman of the Los Angeles Convention; was a vice-president of the board of lady managers of the Louisiana Purchase Expedition. In 1904 she was elected president of the Ohio Federation, which she had been instrumental in organizing. She has been president of the Springfield Woman's Club. Gifted with a remarkable memory, quick to recognize merit, more critical of herself than others, tireless in her effort to advance the club movement, Mrs Buchwalter plans and executes with the same enthusiasm which has not waned in her twenty years' service.
MRS. ADDISON F. BROOMHALL.
Was elected president of the Ohio Federation in 1909. She has been a worker in the Federation since its organization; has served her state as treasurer, ​ Federation secretary and chairman of the Convention Advisory Committee. She has been active in library work and for two years was chairman of the Library Extension Committee of the General Federation. Mrs. Broomhall's husband is one of the most brilliant lawyers in Ohio.
MRS. CHARLES H. KUMLER.
Mrs. Charles H. Kumler is a member of the Industrial and Child Labor Committee of the Federation of Women's Clubs; has been active in this line of work for many years, taking a special interest in the organization and development of Noonday Clubs in factories where young women are employed. She did much to create sentiment favoring the regulation of child labor in Ohio. Aside from her club interests she is a well-known collector of antiques and possesses one of the most valuable and varied collections.
MRS. PHILIP CARPENTER.
Mrs. Philip Carpenter, of New York, was born at Rainbow, Connecticut, educated in Mills College, California, and New York University Law School. She is an ex-president of the New York State Federation, president of Sorosis, president of Women Lawyers' Club of New York City, and ex-president of the National Society of New England Women. She was the second woman lawyer to appear in the New York Court of Appeals, and the first to win anything there.
HANNAH KENT SCHOFF.
Mrs. Frederic Schoff, president of the National Congress of Mothers, is the daughter of Thomas Kent of England and Fanny Leonard Schoff of Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Mrs. Schoff is the mother of seven children, and until they were past babyhood she was in no way interested in outside work. She has been president of the National Congress of Mothers almost since its organization, being elected to succeed Mrs. Theodore W. Birney who, together with Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, was the founder of the organization. She is also a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, Daughters of the American Revolution, New Century Club, Philadelphia, National Education Association, Religious Education Association and the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court and Probation Association.
Mrs. Schoff's interest was aroused in behalf of children from reading of a young child eight years of age being sentenced at the criminal court for burning up the house in which she lived, because she wanted to see the flames, and the engines run. It seemed so dreadful to Mrs. Schoff that she determined to see if there was not something that could be done for these baby criminals, or what was better, do something for the mothers of these babies to aid them in learning their responsibilities as mothers. The first juvenile court in Pennsylvania was held in Philadelphia, June 14, 1901. Mrs. Schoff attended this court. Having previously been appointed probation officer she had investigated the condition of juvenile criminals in Pennsylvania. She found that the state had two reformatories, one in the western and one in the eastern part of the state. There was also a reformatory for boys over sixteen years of age, at Huntington, Pennsylvania. ​ She found, in the two reformatories, sixteen hundred children comprising waifs, homeless little ones and children accused of the most serious crimes. Men and women contracting second marriages made use of this opportunity to get rid of their existing families and the children, innocent and helpless, were sent to associate with boys and girls of sixteen and eighteen years. Little children were tried in the criminal courts, kept waiting in the cages for criminals, which also housed men and women steeped in crime. There are five hundred children ranging in age from six to sixteen years of age in the Philadelphia County prison, and the same thing existed in every county in the state. There were from two to three hundred children passing through the station houses every month and these were at the mercy of the presiding judge.
Mrs. Schoff appealed to the New Century Club of Philadelphia, presenting the facts she had gathered, which naturally shocked every member of the club. They made haste to organize committees and to urge further investigation as to the conditions affecting children in Philadelphia. Patterning after other states, they succeeded in securing a juvenile court with its merciful provisions and its just judge. While absorbed in this work, Mrs. Schoff became enthusiastic in her work for the betterment of all minors, whether they belonged to the criminal or other classes who were likely to be subjected to demoralizing influences. It would make a volume to describe the work of Mrs. Schoff and her associates. They applied to the National Congress for material and information and made such a thorough investigation of existing laws and the policy of the government and the practice of the courts that the president of the United States heartily approved of the work that had been done. Following this action Mrs. Schoff applied to the National Congress of Mothers to take up this as a special work, believing that the active interest of every auxiliary of the National Congress of Mothers in every community would accomplish more by educating the parents and looking after the children than could be done in any other way.
The present officers of the National Organization are:
Mrs. Frederic Schoff, president.
Mrs. Arthur A. Birney, secretary.
Mrs. W. B. Ferguson, treasurer.
Vice-presidents:
Mrs. David O. Mears.
Mrs. Orville T. Bright.
Mrs. Fred T. Dubois.
Mrs. Edwin R. Weeks.
Mrs. Ray Rushton.
Historian:
Mrs. E. A. Tuttle.
Recording secretary:
Mrs. James S. Bolton.
These ladies, together with the following list of active members of the organization, have done prodigious work in every state in the Union. Mrs. ​ William T. Carter, of Philadelphia; Mrs. Joseph P. Mumford, of Philadelphia; Mrs. William J. Thacher, of New Jersey; Mrs. Frank De Garmo, of St. Louis; Mrs. B. H. Stapleton, of Mississippi and Miss Sophie B. Wright, of New Orleans. There are many more noble women all over the country, who deserve mention as earnest, effective workers in this holy cause, whom the editor must omit for want of space in this volume.
Mrs. Schoff has been the inspiration of the vital reforms which have been achieved through her leadership and marvelous executive ability.
MRS. S. J. WRIGHT.
President Texas Federation of Women's Clubs 1909-1911.
Mrs. Samuel Johnston Wright (lone Hervey Wright) is descended, through her maternal grandmother, from a long line of Anglican clergymen—Lord Bishop Hervey of the Court of Henry VIII being the first, descendants of whom coming to America and Virginia in the early days of our country, became Presbyterian ministers.
Mrs. Wright—a woman of high ideals and one who works zealously for the cause not for self aggrandizement—came to Paris, Texas, in 1883 from Leavenworth, Kansas, as the young bride of Captain S. J. Wright, a member of one of the most prominent and influential families of Lamar and Red River Counties, and by her gracious manner and charming personality won friends readily, while her great administrative ability was early recognized. She was elected president of the first Chautauqua Circle organized in Paris, and continued in office for four years till graduating from this Circle in 1894. When the Ladies Auxiliary of the Young Women's Christian Association was founded Mrs. Wright was unanimously made president. She was a charter member of the Lotus Club and has been elected to the highest offices within the gift of this club. In 1903, she was the Lotus president and when the City Federation was formed was chosen president, and by her unfailingly good spirit and agreeable manner of impressing her views, soon made this organization effective for the good of her town. She is now an honorary member of the Twentieth Century Club and an active member of the Quill Club, where only original manuscripts are read and accepted. Not only has Mrs. Wright's home town recognized and appreciated her literary and executive ability, but she has been appointed by several of the state presidents on various important committees, as well as elected to different offices of the State Federation. While a member of the Art Committee during Mrs. Pennybacker's presidency, she gave public art lectures at the different ward schools and aroused great interest in the pictures of the Traveling Art Gallery. As chairman of the Art Committee under Mrs. E. P. Turner she visited by invitation, the adjoining towns, giving lectures on art and creating a widespread interest in the pictures sent out by the Federation. Mrs. Wright gave great impetus to the work of the third district as its president during Mrs. Cone Johnson's administration, and originated in her district the Educational Loan Fund which has so materially aided ambitious young girls. She did effective work as first vice-president with Mrs. Dibrell as president. ​ Mrs. Wright's varied club experience makes her a strong and most acceptable state president, who keeps in close touch with all the work and advances all good movements. Her address, always dignified and imposing, is courteous; though reserved she is approachable; she is found always in sympathy with every phase of the work which tends to the education, elevation and greater happiness of all mankind.
The impetus given all branches of Federation endeavor during her administration has been evidenced by the large attendance at the district meetings, the excellent reports rendered and the number of new clubs applying for admittance. Mrs. Wright was the first state president to give special attention to the moral and physical welfare of children. In her open letter to club women announcing her candidacy she said:
"This is the century of the child, and thinking, active women are making this more true each succeeding year. What we club women have accomplished along educational lines needs no reviewing here; our work is fostering manual and industrial training in the public schools, and for the founding of free kindergartens throughout the state ; our aid in the passage of the Juvenile Court Bill, and in the establishment of an Industrial Training School for Incorrigibles—all of these demonstrate our lines of action favoring the mental, manual and spiritual training of the child. Our fine record made in the cause of parks and school grounds proves our desire for the physical welfare of the child. But we do more. Therefore, club women of Texas, while my plan for the direction of our efforts during the next administration, would, of course, include the accomplishment of any work outlined by preceding administrations and as yet uncompleted, it would also include special endeavor as is the visible outgrowth of what has already been undertaken and which is essential to the highest ideals of our organization—to my mind this directs us to the spread of the gospel of moral and physical training for the child." At the district meetings all her addresses were on the subject "Present Purposes of the Texas Federation," varying it as the needs of each seemed to require, but always bringing out the thought that her administration stands not only for the perfect and symmetrical education of the child, which means development of brain, hand and heart, but also for social development through the social centre movement, which constitutes the one decidedly new Federation issue for 1909-1911. This movement proposes that the schoolhouse, especially in rural districts, be used as a social centre, becoming the club house, the library, the forum of the community, thus assembling together many of those otherwise isolated, or with no recreative horizon.
Mrs. Wright's administration will be remembered as the one which, through its influence was successful in the passing of an adequate "Child Labor Law" for Texas. Mrs. Wright declares, however, that child idleness is as great a menace to civilization as is Child Labor, and the Federation is now working toward an optional compulsory educational law, the same embodying the industrial feature, as under present conditions in Texas is the only solution of the question.
AMELIA STONE QUINTON.
Was born near Syracuse, New York, of English ancestry and directly descended from both Pilgrims and Puritan New England stock. Her father was Jacob Thompson Stone, and her mother Mary Bennett Stone. In the early days her family was intermarried with the Adams family and the son of one was the father of Samuel Adams ; another member was aunt to John Adams, the second president of the United States and a great-aunt to John Quincy Adams, sixth president. Mrs. Quinton's early education was acquired in one of the female seminaries of that time. She spent a year as a teacher in a Georgia Seminary, after which she became the wife of the Rev. James F. Swanson, a Christian Minister of that state, whose death occurred within a few years. After this Mrs. Swanson returned north and taught at a female seminary in Philadelphia. During this time she turned to religious and philanthropic work, to which she gave some valuable years. Her first service in this work was among the poor and degraded of New York City. One day of the week she spent in the prison, one in the almshouse, and another in some infirmary or reformatory for women. One service was a weekly Bible class for sailors on shore. Very soon she was invited to
GRACE WILBUR TROUT.
Mrs. Trout was born and educated in Maquoketa, Iowa. Discerning early that certain qualities of voice made her especially fitted for platform speaking, she specialized in that form of study. Her father drilled her, and often said to her, "When you talk, say something." Instead of entering the profession for which she had been prepared, she married George W. Trout, and a few years later they moved to Chicago. Not long afterwards, Mrs. Trout became interested in the Mormon question, writing a story entitled "The Mormon Wife," which received great commendation. Mrs. Trout was at one time president of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the National Club; member of the West End Women's Club; president of the Women's Auxiliary of the Oak Park Club; member of the Nineteenth Century Club of Oak Park; member of the Chicago Women's Club for ten years, and member of the Chicago Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Is president of the largest Equal Suffrage League in Illinois. She is one of the well-known speakers on the subject of equal suffrage in the Middle West, being thoroughly informed on her subject. Filled with the enthusiasm of it, she presents her theme in a masterly shape.
MRS. NETTIE RANSFORD.
Mrs. Nettie Ransford was born November 6, 1838, in Little Falls, New York. In 1808 she was General Grand Matron of the Masonic Order of the Eastern Star. This order is an organization of the wives and daughters of Masons and affiliates in their charitable work. Her parents were from Scotland. After graduating in 1857 she settled in Nebraska and taught school in Omaha and Fort Calhoun, here, in 1858, she married William T. Ransford, and in 1862 they moved to Laporte, Indiana. She was one of the first women who joined the Order of the Eastern Star, soon after that order was organized in 1872. She was elected Worthy Matron in 1874 and re-elected several times. In 1879 she was elected Grand Matron, being re-elected to this office several times. She was elected Most Worthy General Grand Matron in the sessions of the General Grand Chapter held in Indianapolis in 1879, and was the first General Grand Matron to serve under the changed constitution. Her duties are such that she has traveled throughout the entire General Grand Jurisdiction and has distinguished herself in ways which can only be appreciated and understood by members of this order.
ELIZA HARRIS LAWTON BARKER.
Eliza Harris Lawton Barker, daughter of Moses Turner Lawton and Elizabeth Tillinghast Lawton, was married on October 9, 1873, to Hon. Richard Jackson Barker, a distinguished ex-union officer. Mrs. Barker is a direct descendant of Admiral George Lawton of the Royal Navy, belonging to one of the oldest families of Rhode Island, which was established by George and Thomas Lawton at Portsmouth.
Mrs. Barker completed her education at Vassar College, and probably is the ​ best known woman in Rhode Island in educational and literary circles. She has always been deeply interested in the public school system and was elected twenty-five years ago a member of the school committee of the town of Tiverton. For sixteen years she has been chairman of the school board. She has been historian of the Colonial Dames of Rhode Island, she is an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and has been vice-president general of the National Society, to which exalted office she was elected by a large majority at the National Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which was held at Washington, D. C, in April, 1906.
Fourteen years previous she had been an active officer of Gaspee Chapter of Providence, resigning the office of regent to accept the one to which she had been elected. The Gaspee Chapter presented her with a beautiful silver-mounted gavel made from wood taken from the old Gaspee room. She is honorary state regent of Rhode Island and has been made an honorary member of several Rhode Island and Massachusetts Chapters.
In the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, she has filled many prominent places, at one time being chairman of the Magazine Committee, chairman of the Purchasing Committee, a member of the Auditing Committee, member of the Continental Hall Committee, member of the Jamestown Committee, chairman for New England of the Daughters of the American Revolution Exhibit at the Jamestown Exposition. Mrs. Barker was honored by her state by being made hostess at the Rhode Island State Building by the Commissioners of Rhode Island at the Jamestown, Virginia, Exposition.
For four years she was state historian of the Daughters of the American Revolution and was thirteen years chairman of the Gaspee Prize Committee. She is state regent of the Pocahontas Memorial Association and vice-president of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction. She was one of the chairmen of the Rhode Island Sanitary Relief Association during the Spanish War; was one of the women commissioners of Rhode Island at the Atlanta Exposition.
Among the other various important positions held by Mrs. Barker, she has been a member of the Board of the Woman's College, Brown University, ever since it was founded, vice-president of the Woman's Board of the Union Hospital, secretary of the 13th Congressional District George Washington Memorial Committee. She has been for years actively interested in hospital and other benevolences of Fall River and Tiverton, Rhode Island. She has been especially interested in patriotic education in the public schools and has taken a very active part in every progressive movement in the line of education. She is an exceptional speaker and presiding officer, wields a gifted pen and exercises an incomparable influence for human welfare and progress.
Mrs. Barker is President for Rhode Island of Women's Rivers and Harbors Congress of the United States.
MRS. CHARLOTTE P. ACER BARNUM.
Mrs. Charlotte P. Acer Barnum was born in Shelley Center, Orleans County, New York, in 1865, January 8. Her father was Volney Acer, who was born ​ in Pittsford, Monroe County, New York, and her mother Charlotte Clark Peck, who was born in Tallmadge, Summit County, Ohio. Her mother's ancestors all came from New England, where they had lived for generations. Her father's family settled in Pittsford (7 miles from Rochester) in 1790, and the original farm on which her great-grandfather settled is still in the possession of the family. The Acers were originally from Holland but her great-grandmother was Dorothy Adams, a kin to John, John Quincy and Samuel, as well as to Judge Otis and other early New England settlers.
Mrs. Barnum was graduated from Vassar College in 1886. Since that time she has studied abroad in France and Germany and has done research work in Boston and New York. In 1893 she came to live in Pittsford, her father's old home, where she was married in June, 1907, to Nathaniel C. Barnum, whose ancestors settled in Rochester in 1794.
Mrs. Barnum was for four years secretary of the National Vassar Students' Aid Society and was for ten years the president of the Rochester Branch of the Vassar Students' Aid Society. At present she is treasurer of the Century Club of Rochester, chairman of the committee of the state of New York of the Society of School Patrons of the National Education Association, and on the executive committee of the Society of School Patrons of the National Education Association, representing on the executive committee the Association of Collegiate Alumnae.
MRS. ELIZABETH LANGWORTHY.
Mrs. Elizabeth Langworthy was born in October, 1837, in Orleans County, New York. Her father was one of the heirs of the Trinity Church property in New York. Her mother was descended from a prominent French family. In 1858 she became the wife of Stephen Langworthy of Dubuque, Iowa, whose parents were among the early pioneers of that state. In 1861 Mr. and Mrs. Langworthy made their home in Monticello, Iowa, and here she was instrumental in founding the public library of that city. Later, in the city of Seward, Nebraska, where their home was established, she served as president of many societies for local improvement and also of the Seward History and Art Club, and it was through her suggestion and instrumentality as a member of the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition, that the hammer was presented to Mrs. Potter Palmer, then president, with which she drove the last nail in the Woman's Building. Mrs. Langworthy raised the fund for this purpose.
ELIZABETH F. PIERCE.
Miss Pierce is the daughter of the late Charles W. Pierce, a business man of Boston, and a niece of Mrs. J. Ellen Horton Foster, and was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She is noted in her native city for her earnest religious and philanthropic work, especially in the Foreign and Home Missionary Societies of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After the death of her father, she and her mother, Mrs. Foster's sister, removed to Washington. Miss Pierce immediately identified herself with her church, and its wonderful work along many lines. She has been ​ most active as a member of missionary societies, the Daughters of the American Revolution and other patriotic associations. She was elected recording secretary-general of the Daughters of the American Revolution, serving as such until 1911, when she was elected chaplain general of that great order.
CATHERINE NOBLES.
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father, Charles H. Nobles, was a native of Providence, R. I., who moved to New Orleans in early life. Her father was one of the founders of the Howard Association of New Orleans. Was an officer of that body until his death. Mr. Nobles had rendered valuable assistance in the various epidemics that fell upon New Orleans from 1837-1867. Miss Nobles has been prominent in club life in New Orleans and became widely known as a club woman ; she served as secretary of the Woman's Club of New Orleans and the Woman's League of Louisiana. In 1892 at a meeting of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs of the United States, held in Chicago, Miss Nobles was elected one of the board of directors.
MRS. HERMAN J. HALL.
Was born in Oneida County, New York, educated in Buffao, New York. Spent much time in travel and study of the history of art. Has made a specialty of Pagan and Christian Symbolism in art and lectures upon these subjects. Founded the League for Civic Improvement and the Art Study Club in 1888, and which now numbers nearly six hundred, the largest of its kind in America. Ex-president of the Woman's Auxiliary and ex-second vice-president, American Outdoor Art League. Ex-chairman Art Committee General Federation Woman's Clubs for first four years of Art Department. Ex-chairman Art Committee Illinois Federation, Woman's Club. Ex-chairman local Exhibition Committee Municipal Art League at Art Institute, Chicago. Honorary member Chicago Outdoor Art League; also Outdoor Art League of San Francisco and founder of the Outdoor Art League of Los Angeles. Member Audubon Park Board, New Orleans, La. Author of "Two Women Abroad" and contributor to various magazines. Most of the work done by Mrs. Hall in the organizing of these various clubs and associations was pioneer work. Her lectures are upon the travels and studies which she has made in the various countries which are subjects of her lectures. She has made a most exhaustive study of the architecture, sculpture, metal work, paintings and prints, porcelains and pottery, textiles, landscape art and flower cult of Japan and China; also the history, agriculture, life and arts of Russia, Spain and other European countries.
MINONA STEARNS FITTS JONES.
Mrs. Jones was born in Abington, Mass., July 5, 1855, of New England ancestry. Her ancestors settled Walpole, Wrentham and Mansfield, Mass. She is the daughter of Dr. I. H. Stearns and Catherine M. Guild Stearns. Attended ​ the New England public schools; New Vineyard, Maine, and Oak Grove Seminary, Vassalboro, Maine, finishing her education at Milwaukee Female College. She studied medicine and assisted her father, Dr. Stearns, in the Milwaukee National Soldiers' Home where he was surgeon. Married Robert C. Fitts, of Leverett, Mass., at Milwaukee, on December 6, 1879. She engaged in business in Milwaukee for six years. She became interested in politics through the street-car strike in Milwaukee in 1896, and was the only woman writer and speaker for the strikers and became converted to woman suffrage at that time and spoke for the populists in their campaign in Wisconsin.
Upon the discovery of rich deposits of mica in Park and Fremont Counties, Colorado, by her son, Roy Fields Fitts, Mrs. Fitts visited Colorado and bought the mines and milling property and began the mining of mica, assisted by her son, who was a boy of eighteen years. Mrs. Fitts returned to Chicago and organized the United States Mica Mining and Milling Company, and was elected secretary and treasurer of same, which position she held for six years. Mrs. Fitts married for the second time, Senator Frank W. Jones, of Massachusetts. May 29, 1905. Mrs. Fitts Jones founded the "No Vote No Tax" League of Illinois. This league was established for the purpose of bringing together all who would refuse to pay taxes until they could vote—since "Taxation without representation is tyranny." Mrs. Fitts Jones is one of the incorporators of the "Public Policy League" of Illinois, and also incorporated the National Race Betterment League, and was elected the first president of this world-wide movement for race betterment.
LUCY GASTON PAGE.
Miss Page, the founder of the Anti-Cigarette League of America, was well known in Chicago club life and philanthropy, where she founded, several years ago, this work which she carried to New York City, where some of the leading citizens of that metropolis are co-operating with her. We know of no greater field of usefulness or benefit to the human race of the future than the work done by this organization. Investigations on this subject have been started by the interest developed by this organization in many states. The Sage Foundation experts have taken it up in the New York public schools; the Big Brother Movement has also become interested in the importance of this work. It is rapidly commanding the attention of sociologists and philanthropic and home economic workers throughout the country.
LUCINDA H. STONE.
Mrs. Lucinda H. Stone was born in Hinesburg, Vermont, in 1814. Her maiden name was Lucinda Hinesburg. She has always been active in educational work, has founded many women's libraries and has been often called the "Mother of Women's Clubs of the State of Michigan"; taught in several of the well-known educational institutions in that state. In 1840 she became the wife of Dr. J. A. B. Stone, also a teacher. In 1843 they took up their residence in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where Dr. Stone was president of the Kalamazoo College ​ for twenty years. The female department of this institution was under Mrs. Stone's charge for many years. Before the war, Mrs. Stone's home was the resort of the abolitionist and equal suffrage leaders. In 1864 Mrs. Stone gave up her educational work and devoted her time to the organizing of women's clubs and societies for the education of women. Mrs. Stone was the first woman to use her influence toward the admitting of women to the University of Michigan, and for the work which she did in this direction, the University of Michigan, in 1891, conferred upon her the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
CAROLINE M. SEYMOUR SEVERANCE.
By Mrs. John A. Logan.
Mrs. Severance was born in Canandaigua, New York, in January, 1820. She is the daughter of Orson Seymour, a banker of that place. Her mother was Caroline M. Clarke Seymour, who must have been a devoted and wise mother to have reared a daughter of such rare genius as Mrs. Severance. January 12, 1840, Miss Seymour became the wife of Theodoric C. Severance, a banker of Cleveland, Ohio, to which place Mr. Severance took his bride and established their first home. Their five children were born there, their mother devoting her entire time to her husband and children; it was an ideal American home. Mrs. Severance, meanwhile, kept abreast with the progress of the times. Her native talent, active mind and accomplishments made her an authority on the ethics of society. In 1853 she was chosen to give a lecture before the "Mercantile Library Association," the first woman to deliver a lecture before such an association. Her topic was "Humanity; a Definition and a Plea." She made such a brilliant accomplishment that she was obliged to deliver it in many places in the state. "The Woman's Rights Association," of Ohio, prevailed upon Mrs. Severance to arrange the lecture in the form of a tract to be distributed throughout the country. Later Mrs. Severance was appointed to present to the legislature ​ a memorial "asking suffrage and such amendments to the state laws of Ohio, as should place woman on a civil equality with man."
In 1855 Mr. and Mrs. Severance removed to Newton, Mass. The women suffragists of New England were delighted to welcome so brilliant an advocate for the cause of suffrage as Mrs. Severance. She demurred at taking an active part in the work the "Woman's Rights Association" was planning to inaugurate. She preferred to render such service as she could as a member of the committee of the "Theodore Parker Fraternity Association," and to aid in securing a woman lecturer for the course. She earnestly joined her associates in requesting Mrs. Cady Stanton to deliver the course. Mrs. Stanton was, however, unable to accept the invitation of the committee. Mrs. Severance wrote to Mrs. Stanton long afterwards: "I was not able to resist the entreaties of the committee and the obligation that I felt myself under to make good your place, so far as in me lay." Hence she took upon herself the grave responsibility of giving the course of lectures the committee considered of vital importance to the cause of woman's rights. The initial lecture was the first ever delivered by a woman before a Lyceum Association in Boston. Mrs. Severance subsequently in writing to Mrs. Stanton tells of her emotions while delivering the lecture: "I will not tell you how prosy and dull I fear it was; but I know it was earnest and well considered, and that the beaming eyes of dear Mrs. Follen and Miss Elizabeth Peabody, glowing with interest before me from below the platform of Tremont Temple, kept me in heart all through."
Mrs. Severance is a tall, dignified woman, with a handsome face, ever lighted up by her effervescing spirits. Her countenance reflects the brilliancy of her rare intelligence, quickness of thought, and purity of mind and heart. She possesses ​ remarkable conversational powers, and is a most effective and eloquent speaker from the platform. In years gone by she has given "soul-service" in many directions, standing as corresponding secretary for the Boston Anti-slavery Society, as one of the Board of Managers of the Boston Woman's Hospital, and delivering a course of lectures on practical ethics before Dio Lewis' school for girls, at Lexington, Mass. These lectures cover the relation of the young woman to the school, the state, the home and to her own development.
After long and prayerful thought as to how to best utilize "the truth, the goodness, the intelligence of the literary and philanthropic women of New England, and the vast benefits which she foresaw would flow from such a union," in 1868, Mrs. Severance called the sympathetic women together in parlor meetings to talk over her ideas. Their meetings resulted in "the introduction to the world of a new form of social and mental architecture." Mrs. Severance, as founder, "was elected president of the first woman's club in our country—the New England Woman's Club of Boston," and thereby became the "Mother of Clubs" and was the primal force in a movement that has become a stupendous factor in our civilization.
May 30, 1868, in Chickering Hall, the New England Woman's Club was introduced to the world. The noble women who had perfected this beneficent organization were ably assisted and encouraged on that occasion by the addresses of Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Freeman Clarke, Jacob Manning, John Weiss, O. B. Frothingham, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Bronson Alcott. The speakers for the club were: Julia Ward Howe and Mrs. E. D. Cheney, who set forth the purposes of the New England Woman's Club so eloquently and comprehensively as to win the endorsement and confidence of the whole assemblage: First, "to organize the social forces of the women of New England"; to establish "a larger home for ​ those who love and labor for the greater human family"; to combine "recreation with the pursuit of wisdom"; to provide "the comforts of the club to the lonely, in city and suburb," and proposed useful work in a registry of women seeking the so-called higher occupations, providing rooms for women who came to Boston for concerts, operas, and lectures.
Among the achievements of the New England Woman's Club has been the establishment of a Horticultural School for women, in which the pupils erected their own greenhouses, painted the buildings, etc. It was subsequently merged into the "bussey," a department of Harvard. Caused the passage of the first school-suffrage law, which permitted women to be elected members of the Boston and other school boards. Aided by helpers, the club established the New England Hospital for women and children, which was officered and managed by women, with eminent doctors of the other sex as consulting physicians and surgeons. In co-operation with Hon. Josiah Quincy, Dr. Bowditch and others, the club joined in the incorporation of a successful Co-operation Building Association, which proved a great assistance to the poor, and furnished an object lesson to the philanthropists of the whole country. Aided by one of its members, "St. Elizabeth" Peabody, the club provided scholarships for studious young women and used its potent influence to promote higher education for women, resulting in the founding of the Girl's Latin School, of Boston.
The club began the agitation and eventually caused the appointment of women police matrons and placed women on the boards of all public institutions. Homes of detention for women they also secured.
This club also aided the fund of the Egyptian Exploration Society, joined the Archaeological Institute of Greece, and abetted the New York Society for the suppression of obscene literature and took an active part in the dress-reform movement. ​ The club organized classes in English literature, languages, and other higher studies. In 1876, it had classes in political economy, and in 1891 formed a "current topics" class, and secured able lecturers on Political Development, Railroad Laws, Prohibition Laws, George's "Progress and Poverty," Summer's "Obligations of the Social Class," Bryce's "American Commonwealth," Socialism of To-day, Municipal Reform, Rent, The Lobby System, The Silver Question, Food Waste, Prison Reform, The Responsibility of the Employer and Employed, as well as many topics bearing upon the standing of woman and her influence in all departments of human activity. Socially, the club gave many receptions to distinguished visitors and American celebrities, among them: Monsieur Coquerel, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Faithful, Mary Carpenter, Lord and Lady Amberly, Harriet Hosmer, Anne Whitney, Professor Maria Mitchell, Dr. Parsons, the Dante scholar, Professors Pierce, Gould, and Fiske and Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale. Thus it will be seen that "the diversity of activities and of sympathy illustrates well the broad purpose and intent of the originators of club-life for American women."
​ The editor has had the good fortune to know Mrs. Severance and to visit her in Los Angeles, California, in her lovely home, El Nido, which is full of priceless literary treasures and souvenirs of great occasions and honors paid to her as "The Mother of Clubs." She has also been christened the "Ethical Magnet of Southern California." Many contemporary authors have contributed valuable copies of their books suitably inscribed. Arranged in a cabinet are the autographed photographs of her distinguished friends and co-workers, whom she calls her "immortals," including Mrs. Browning, George Eliot, Margaret Fuller, Lydia Maria Childs, Lucy Stone, Frances Dana Gage, Caroline H. Dall, Louisa Alcott, Celia Burleigh, Ednah D. Cheney, and Lucretia Mott. In a corresponding case, are pictures of Junipero Serra, Wendell Phillips, Longfellow, Whittier, James Freeman Clarke, William H. Channing, Lowell, Samuel Johnson, and Charles Sumner. Another rare picture is one of five generations of the Severance family in a group.
Among the most valued are the souvenirs of the celebration of the silver wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Severance, which occurred in 1865. When her literary friends and admirers journeyed from the Middle West and every part of the country to Boston, Mass., to participate in the festivities of the felicitous occasion, they brought tributes of affection in poetry and prose. Of the number, such illustrious names appear, as Isabella Beecher Hooker, Dr. and Mrs. Dio Lewis, Mattie Griffith, Albert G. Browne, Mrs. Satterlee, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ivinson (sister of Mrs. Severance), the Burrage family of Boston and a host of others. While the letters of regret bore the signatures of such immortals as George Bradburn, Harriet Minot Pitman, James Freeman Clarke and Mrs. Clarke, William Lloyd and Frank Garrison, Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, Rev. Zachos, William H. Avery, Salmon P. Chase, ​ Theodore Tilton, Grace Greenwood, Truman Seymour, James F. Hall, George Wm. Curtis, Anna Q. T. Parsons, W. W. Story (the artist), General and Mrs. Fremont, Miss Fremont, Lieutenant Frank Fremont and George B. Grinnell.
Mrs. Severance's "Ye Geste Book" is a rare volume, containing innumerable names of those who have paid their respects to this remarkable woman. John W. Hutchinson and his wife, with a record of "fifty-eight years old, thirty-nine years singing and ten thousand concerts," made a visit to Mrs. Severance. Ludlow Patten and wife (nee Abby Hutchinson), Henry M. Field and wife, Helen Hunt Jackson, Captain R. H. Pratt, J. Wells Champney and wife, William J. Rotch, Locke Richardson, Charles Dudley Warner, George W. Cable, Elizabeth B. Custer (widow of General Custer), J. W. Chadwick and wife, John W. Hoyt and wife, Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (written in her eighty-seventh year), Rev. William Milburn (the blind chaplain of the Senate), Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney, Edward Everett Hale, Miss Susan Hale, Charlotte Perkins Stetson, Grace Ellery Channing, Rev. J. Minot Savage, Kate Sanborn, Cordelia Kirkland, Ida Coolbrith, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. E. O. Smith, "Vivekananda," (who wrote, "From the unreal, lead me to the real—from the darkness into light"), Mrs. J. S. Langrana, of Poona, India; Miss Florence Denton, of Kyoto, Japan; Jan Krigo, of Transvaal, South Africa; Henry Demarest Lloyd, who prefaced his autograph with "We can preserve the liberties we have inherited only by winning new ones to bequeath."
M. ELEANOR BRACKENRIDGE.
An educational movement coincident with the wonderful awakening of women to a sense of their responsibilities characterized the last decade of the last and the first decade of the present century. A conspicuous leader in this movement, Miss M. Eleanor Brackenridge, of San Antonio, Texas, was a graduate of Anderson's Female Seminary, New Albany, Indiana, Class of 1855. Her girlhood was spent in Jackson County, Texas, where she devoted her energies to ministering to family and friends, even studying medicine and applying remedies for the diseases incident to a new country with much sickness and few physicians. With a burning desire to be helpful to humanity, it was not until 1898 when a club progressive in education and altruistic in scope was planned in San Antonio, that she found her opportunity as president, organizer and leader along her chosen line of work. Her enthusiasm and earnest zeal won the loyal support of her co-workers, to whom she insists the honor of the success of the first department club of Texas belongs. She served as regent for the first seven years of the State College of Industrial Arts for Women, and has served on state and national educational committees of women's clubs, Daughters of the American Revolution and Mothers' Congress. She has educated from three to seven girls yearly in the all-round education, the higher education, or in the profession of medicine. Her interest in humanity naturally makes her an ardent advocate of woman suffrage. With a keen realization of the possibilities of organized womanhood, in a quiet way she has started movements that are far-reaching in their results. A modest, home-loving, conservative, but progressive in thought, she has used her wealth, social position and even accepted offices to encourage the organization of women for the betterment of humanity.
MRS. SARAH PLATT DECKER.
One of the most distinguished clubwomen of the country is Mrs. Sarah Piatt Decker, of Denver, Colorado. Mrs. Decker has been very active in the work of the societies to which she belongs, giving her time and strength to the work these clubs have undertaken. She was for some time president of the Woman's Club of Denver, and is considered an authority on the best methods for civic improvement. She has been vice-president and president of the National Federation of Clubs. Her exceptional talent and wonderful executive ability contribute largely to the success of the various clubs of which she is a member.
HELEN VARICK BOSWELL.
MEMORIAL CONTINENTAL HALL, WASHINGTON, D. C.
Erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Miss Boswell devotes much of her time to the women's department of the Federation and General Federation of Women's Clubs; is chairman of the Industrial and Social Conditions department of that organization. Among the subjects discussed in her lectures and talks before the public in the interest of her work, are: "Social and Political Progress of American Women," "Society and the Criminal," "The Club Woman as a Molder of Public Opinion," "Everyday Life on the Canal Zone."
Miss Boswell comes of Revolutionary ancestors, is prominent in the Daughters of the American Revolution, and is well known in the social and official life of Washington and New York.