The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1905-05-24
"A NOTABLE
CAREER.
Mrs. Mary A. Livermore Was
Famous Leader Of Women.
WAS WIDELY KNOWN.
Married Universalist Minister and Soon
Drifted into Literary Widely
Known as Lecturer and
Author
WAS WIDELY KNOW N.

Mrs. Mary Ashton Liyermore, who
died at her home in AleIrose, Mass, yes
terday, has for years been known as a
leading woman sutfragist and temperance
advocate, and to the late generation
only as such, although thirty years ago
her chief fame perhaps rested on the
work she did for the soldiers of the
Civil War through the United States
Sanitary Commission. There were few
women in the country better known than
she or whose influence reached more
directly to the people. Familiar to
thousands by reason of her indefatig-
able work on the lecture platform, she
increased her fame and power by means
| of persistence in literary work on her
chosen subjects.
Mrs. Livermore was born iii Boston
on Dec. 10, 1920, and was the daughter
| of Timothy and Zebiah Rice. Her educa-
| ton was obtained in the public schools
| and the CharIestown Female Seminary.
near Boston. She was scarcely out Of
short skirts when the desire to 20 down
South and teach there seized her with
so great a force that in spite of her
| fathers strenuous objections she finally
accepted an offer to teach in Southern
| Virginia family school, and remained
| there until the opportunity arose for her
| to return to Massachusetts and set up
school Of her own at Dnxbury. In
1915 her professional school days were
over. 1t was that year that she mar
ried the Rev. d. P. Livermore, Uni
yersalist minister and strong anti
slavery agitator.
Twelve years later the Liyermores
moved TO Chicago, where the minister
became the editor and his wife the as
sociate editor Of a Universalist paper.
During this period the Civil War broke
out and gave Mrs. Livermore the oppor-
itunity to develop that marvellous power
Iof persuasion and praeticalness that
made her famous as one Of the fore
most members OF the United States
Sanitary Commission She Travelled
indefatigably throughout the Northern
States in behalf OF her work for the
soldiers. When the war ended the
country awoke to the fact that it pos
sessed d very remarkable woman.
With the slavery agitation and mill
tary relief in the past, Mrs Livermore
soon bent her whole energy toward
bringing about woman suffrage and in
extending the temperance movement.
While still in Chicago before returning
again to New England, she became the
first president Of the Illinois Woman
Suffrage Association. in 1870 that band
of men and women. who believed in the
political emancipation of the daughters
Iof Eve, wanted to start a paper defining
and promulgatina their policy.
No one better could be thought of as
editor Of the journal than Mrs. Liver
more, and SO it was that she left the
West and returned to Boston to become
the guiding spirit of the famous Agita-
tor. Her fellow founders and editors
were William Lloyd Garrison, Col
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Lucy
Stone, Mrs Julia Ward Howe and Dr..
Henry Blackwell. The paper was some
time afterward merged into the Wo-
mans Journal, of which Mrs. Livefmore
was editor for two years.
Since that time she was one of the
busiest lecturers i'll the country and no
mean subscriber of noteworthy articles
to papers and magazines She found
time in the midst of her arduous and ex
acting labors to write number Of
books, long list of which can be
written down to her credit. Even up to
the last, when she was s4 years old, she
would occasionally take the platform to
deliver one of her wel- known addresses.
Mrs. Lirer1nore died in the house at
Melrose where she had lived for twenty
FIVE years. 1t was the scene of many
notable gathering and was looked upon
as the shrine where one who knew the
great New England heroes Of genera
ton back worked, lived and did as
great deeds as her former friends.
Looked at as a whole her work for wo-
men, and American woman especially,
will probably stand out as that on which
Mrs. Livermore's fame rests. One OF
her deepest and most earnest doctrines
was that the greatness Of this country
depended in the highest degree on the
intelligence and independence Of its
women.