Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-07-28

Inc 0ealD OF EllZaDeIu lnOmpSOL3
Vermont woman, widely known as phi
lanthropist, which took place Friday at
Littleton, N. H., will bring before the
courts a will bequeathing an estate of ST.
600, 900, one-half 10 go toward the relief
and support of poor seamstresses, needle
women and shop girls in Brattleboro, and
one-half to similar persons in Rhinebeck-
on-the- Hudson, n. Y.
The will is that of Thomas Thompson,
a Boston man of wealth and cultivation,
who died in 1869. A copy of the will has
been in The Phoenix office several years.
The will gave legacies to several relatives,
and left the income of the estate for the
use of the wife during her life time, and on
her death to 90 as above indicated.
The late Frances E. Willard, the tenn
perance writer and lecturer, in an article
on elizabeth Thompson, Philanthro-
pist," told the following story:
Miss Wizards Story of Mrs.
Thompson.
She MRS. Thompson) told me her his
tory. Her maiden name was Rowell. She
was born in Vermont, in Caledonia coun-
~, the same county which was the native
home of both her parents. She was of
sturdy stock, the daughter of a farmer,
born into a home where hard work was
plenty, with an honest father OF good hab-
its and good life, but not, judge, of high
spirituality; and with a mother who must
have been saint, according 10 her daugh-
| ter's definition, a woman of the deepest
and most intuitive nature, in whom the
spiritualities well up of their own sweet
will, nor needed to be superinduced by
study, culture, observation, or any outside
help; her body, soul and spirit being the
| home of the Spirit of God. She had many
children and hard life. Elizabeth told
me that she could never put into words the
pity, the compassion, the tenderness she
| felt toward her mother, and from this
fountain had flowed all those tides of
larger sympathy which has since gone al
most 10 the ends of the earth. Her moth
er was beautiful in body as well as in soul,
and bequeathed her nature and gifts, both
exterior and interior, 10 her daughter
Elizabeth.
L do not know just how it came about,
but a Boston gentleman of the highest
culture, a graduate of Harvard university
in the same class with George Bancroft
and others of our most distinguished men,
a bachelor who was living with his mother
and sisters at the Hub, was travelling
through Vermont on a pleasure trip one
summer, and in some casual way, as we
are wont to call it, met Elizabeth, who,
Judge, was enough younger than he TO
have been his daughter. l suppose that
her great beauty and earnestness of nature
| aA months they
met at a concert in Boston, to which she
had been escorted by her uncle, whom she
was visiting. From that time their
acquaintance and friendship went on, un-
Ill they were married, not, as judge, with
the approval of the aristocra ic ladies in
his home, but at least without any revolt
on their part
Once, not many years before Mr.. Thomp-
sons death, when they were summering in
Brattleboro, that gem of town embosom
ed in hills, he came to her one evening
with a formidable document and said
elizabeth, have made my will and be
queathed every cent have in the world tC
YOU"
She said "Oh, why did you do thatP
am not wise in worldly ways. l should
not know how to expend it as you woulC
have wished. l should be the prey of thu
designing and should be caught in th'
meshes of the law"
"In what way would you like, then, Il
have me change MY will?" he said, 'for al
that l have must go to you"
She looked out over the lovely evening
landscape and into the calm heavens, theI
down into this manufacturing town wher
there was so much misery, and said: "PeI
haps can use 1t for the good of humanit
while | am alive, but as to its final use
am not willing to have the responsibility
Can you not leave it for my benefit durin
life and say that at my death one-half of
must 90 to the poor women of BTattleboro
and the other half to the poor women O
Rhinebeck- on the Hudson, where we hav
so often stayed?"
He said very little to her, but when,
few years after, his generous heart ha
, ceased to beat, the will was found TO b
drawn lust as she had desired it. And s
, she became a widow at about 80 years G
t age, with fortune whose annual incom
= was about 100000. She would neVe
touch the principal and her tastes wer
very simple. Society had no attraction
for her, and her dress was always of th
: plainest, though in good taste.
( She managed her own business affair
= and became quite notable business won
an. Her check book was her fairy wand
and have been told that at the close {
every month she had drawn out the er
. tire installment for that period, often g
!. ing beyond it. When the paralytic strok
: came upon her and others took her bus
= = ness in hand, it was found that there wei
28 families in a New England town whel
she was then living, entirely dependel
= upon her bounty.