Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-03-06
proud to claim as an adopted daugh-

| ter.
Constance Fenimore Woolson once
wrote: Although was born in New
Hampshire, although my father was a
New Hampshire man and my mother a
New York woman am supposed to
belong to Ohio. have walked on the
shores of Lake Erie driven all through
the coal country and the corn coun-
try with my father; | know all the
hills, dales and rivers; have sailed up
and down the Ohio; have been to the
harvest fields and even helped; have
gathered the apples and have been to
the Fairs"
While yet child her father moved
to Cleveland and Constance was placed
| in a Young ladies' seminary in that
city. From there she went to Madam
| Cbegarv's famous French school in
New York, and when her education
was finished she returned home and
became a great favorite in society
Her mother, who was a niece of James
Fenimore Cooner was woman of
great literary taste; her father was
noted onversatiJnalist; so Con.
stances friends were not surprised,
when in 1870, little story written by
her appeared in Harper's Monthly.
From that time she gave herself up to
literary pursuits and in a few years
was considered by many as our lead
ing female novelist
Her mothers failing health caused
them in 1873 to leave the cold lake
winds and find home at st. Angus
tine. and on an island in the st.
Johns river. where they lived for five
years. The literary results of this
long stay in the south are readily dis
cerned in her novels. For the Major"
and "Jupiter's Lights" though they
were written abroad same years after.
When her mother died in 1879, Miss
Woolson sailed for Europe, where she
resided until her death in 1894. She
spent her winters in Florence and her
summers in Venice and at various re-
sorts in Switzerland. In a letter to
one of her friends, we find these
words: The world has never ploduc-
ed more home-loving woman than
am, yet have been homeless for twen-
ty years, and she once playfu!ly sug
gested as an epitaph for her tomb
stone, Gone to look for a home else
where"
Anne" which is considered her
masterpiece, was published in 1882.
The scene of the story is laid on the
island of Macinac. where she spent
many summers when young girl. Sh :;
was three years writing it, a worthy
example of novelsts of today. !
Miss Woolson's place in literature is
among the realists with a strong res
ervation as to present Interpretation of
the word. She described her posi- !
tion thus LAS to be a realist. | mean |
that all | write is founded on actual |
realities. l have no interest in any
thing else. But contend that real life |
shows us not infrequently very noble |
characters, the noblest. | myself have /
known such, and If anyone else has not
| can only say that am
sorry for him or her. Nine men
out of ten whom we meet are common
place. But if ten men out of one hun
dred are not a description fone Of
these ten is as real thing as a des-
creption of the nine who are common
place. | can not admit that a realistic
story is one that is limited to COM
people or to the brutal or the
vile."
1t has been said that whenever their
is any Office in the gift of the people
waiting to be filled. there is an Ohio
man to fill it; and this might be added,
that whenever an Ohio man does fill
an Office of public trust, there is gen.
orally by his side an Ohio woman "to
cheer, to comfort-and command"
While on this fourth ofMarch the eyes
Of the nation are turned upon Mrs. :
LuS ulJu OHlO woman TO as
sumo the duties of Mistress of the
White House. let us in the few NOM
'nts left glance at the four other Ohio {
women who were thus honored.
The first of these was Mrs William :
henry Harrison. She was a daughter =
If Judge Symmes, one of the three
Judges of the Northwest Territory. and =.
net her husband in 1895 when he was
;iven command of Fort Washington,
IN the site of the present city of Gin .
innati. Mrs. Harrison's reign at the d
White House was of short duration, for "
he President died within month af-
er his Inauguration in 1S41.
Mrs. Benjamin Harrison was also an d
)hio woman. She was born at Ok .
ord in 1882. of Scotch ancestry. She
raduated from the Female Seminary
that town in 1862, and in the same
ear President Harrison tooIx III. a.