The Press., 1897-05-13
w. C. T. U.
A Remarkable Women.
BY REV. A. H. PLUMB, D. D.

BY REV. A. H. PLUMB, D. D.
 Mrs. Nancy Swift Hanchett, the mother of Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, of Boston, died at Leominster, March 8, at the advanced age of ninety-two years. Two other children mourn her loss, son, Dr. T. s Hanchett, physician of renown in Tor rington, Conn.,, and Mrs. N. 5. Chase, of of her life were spent.
 Her funeral in Leominster, at which Rev. Dr. Scott off1ciated, occurred on the morning of March tenth. Memorial ser vices conducted by Rev. P. B. Davis and Rev. Drs. Albright, Archibald and Plumb were also held later in the day at the chapel In Forest Hill cemetery, Boston, where she was inferred.
 Mrs. Hanchett was direct descendant of Edward Winslow, elected governor of the Plymouth Colony in 1633, and also from Rev, D. Thomas Th1tcher, the first pastor of the Old South Church, Boston, man who, though shut out from Oxford as 8 non-conformist, was accounted the first Hebrew and Arabic scholar in this country. Among her ancestry were many prominent persons who were active in resisting religious tyranny in England, and who in America helped to found Harvard College "for Christ and the Church, ;" to secure our national independ- ence, to form the constitution of the United States, to maintain the evangelical faith against the whitening blight of a skeptical rationalism, and generally to aid all patriotic movements, as we'll as | the work of moral and religious reform.
 Mrs. Hanchett remembered seeing the floor of her fathers house at Barnstable covered at night with the sleeping forms of citizen soldiery, gathered and waiting to repel threatened British invasion in the war of 1872, so that her memories, as well as the traditions of her family his- tory, aided in giving her, at an early age, 8 strongly philanthropic and religious spirit and activity worthy of her honor able lineage. Naturally too, she became an ardent sympathizer with her husband, 1 Ephraim Hanchett, who was the first vice. president of Lyman Beecher's pioneer temperance society in Connecticut, and also an intelligent and eloquent advocate of the abolition of slavery. He with his father and grandfather had been active in developing that early and famous industry at Salisbury, Conn.,, by which Washing. ton got the iron for his cannon, and oul infant commerce it's anchors and chains Fitly, it Is her grandson, Captain Alfred B. Hunt, who had been leading spirit in establishing and guiding another in. fant industry, already attaining giant pro poEtions at Niagara, the manufacture O aluminium.
 American society. 1t has often been re marked, has not sufficiently recognized its indebtedness to the law of heredity il our history. Gratitude is due to God fol keeping alive the succession of able anC worthy men and women who have very largely given to our New England anC American life it's distinctive impress Mrs. Hanchett was women richly en dowed, honorably connected and alsC nobly trained, for by her natural taste and her favorable companionships, sh' early attained the three leading element of 8 true education in an intelligent com prehension of the great plans of God fo the happiness of the individual and thu progress of the race, cordially appreci ative sympathy with those plans, and vigorous, self-sacrificing cooperation wit them. She thus not only came to attai a high degree of personal worth, but als became wholesome and effective fore in society. If the mothers make tn daughters then 1t is largely owing to he care and prayers that her daughter, i obedience to call which her mother strong faith said came from God, ha been the leadiug spirit in the great prov dential movement known the world owe as the American educational method fc the prevention of intemperance, and
 the prosecution of which she has address ed more legislative committees and aS , sembles than any other person ever dic and has been instrumental in securin ? for over sixteen million children tn : warning instruction of science agains
 any indulgence in intoxicating drinks.
 It was beautiful type of Christia
 womanhood which this venerable mothe
 of Israel exhibited, even down to the az
 of ninety-two, with fresh sympathiei
 wise counsels and continued progress
 the last. These three things exalt woma to her highest loveliness and her greates worth-her true vision of Christ, ht obedient following of Christ and her lo'
 ing ministry to Christ, serving His churc
 and His poor.