New Hampshire Women - Strafford County, NH Excerpts

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by MLM, Volunteer #0000130. 
For the current email address, please go to 
http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000130

Copyright. All rights reserved.

************************************************************************
Full copyright notice - http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
USGenWeb Archives - http://www.usgwarchives.net
************************************************************************

Visit http://www.usgwarchives.net/nh/strafford/bios.htm to see the
photos that accompany each biography.

New Hampshire Women --  A Collection of Portraits and 
Biographical Sketches of daughters and residents of the
Granite State, who are worthy representatives of their
sex in the various walks and conditions of life., pub-
lished by The New Hampshire Publishing Co., J.G. Batterson,
Jr., President,©1895

NAME: HALE, Mrs. John P.	

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: LAMBERT;  RICKER;

	Mrs. John P. Hale was Miss Lucy Hill Lambert, a native of 
Somersworth, N.H., the daughter of William and Abigail (Ricker) Lambert.
She was married to Mr. Hale at Berwick, Me., and resided in Dover, as her 
home, at Washington when Mr. Hale was in the United States senate, and at 
Madrid when he was United States minister to Spain.  Her only brother was 
the Rev. Thomas R. Lambert, who was first a lawyer in New Hampshire, next a
chaplain in the United States navy, and later for many years rector of the 
Episcopal church at Charlestown, MA., and was also a distinguished member of
the Masonic order.  Mrs. Hale has proved herself a lady, kindly, courteous,
and dignified.  in all the relations of life, public and private.  
							PG 41
	

NAME: CHANDLER, Mrs. William E. 	

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: LAMBERT;   STEVENS; 
	Mrs. William E. Chandler was Miss Lucy Lambert Hale, second daughter
of Senator John P. Hale, and was a native of Dover, N.H.   She married Mr.
Chandler at Dover in 1874, before he became secretary of the navy and United
States senator, and in her connection with official life is well known as a
spirited and gracious helpmate and hostess.  Her son, John P. Hale Chandler,
born in Washington, D.C., in March 1885, is the only male descendant of her
distinguished father.	
							PG 43

	
NAME: RICKER, Marilla Marks 

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: YOUNG; STEVENS;

	Marilla Marks, daughter of Jonathan B. and Hannah D. (Stevens) Young,
was born in New Durham in 1840.  Her father was an ardent Whig, the New York 
Tribune was the family paper, and its close perusal gave her the decided 
political convictions which make her now an earnest Republican.  Educated in 
the public schools and New London academy, she taught with much success for
several years.  In 1863 she married John Ricker, Esq., of Madbury.  they 
made their home in Dover where Mr. Ricker had a large real estate business.
He died in 1868, leaving her a good property.  In 1872 she went to Europe,
resided for a long time in Germany, and thoroughly mastered the German 
language.  Returning, she went to Washington, where she read law with Albert
G. Riddle and Arthur B. Williams, and was admitted to the bar in 1882, being
examined with eighteen young men and outranking them all.  She was the first
New Hampshire woman to become a lawyer, and practiced successfully in
Washington many years, being admitted to the bar of the United States 
Supreme court in 1892. For some time past she has been United States 
commissioner and examiner in chancery for the District of Columbia. In 1890 
she applied for admission to the New Hampshire bar.  This raised the question
of woman's right to admission to the bar in this state.  After due 
consideration by the full bench Chief Justice Doe rendered a decision to the
effect that she could be admitted the same as any man who is a practicing
attorney in another state.  Mrs. Ricker early became a believer in equal
rights for men and women under the constitution, and offered her ballot at
the polls in Ward Three, Dover, in 1870, with her reasons for demanding a
voter's privilege, being the first woman in the state, and probably in the
country to attempt to vote.  She has spoken effectively on the stump in 
national campaigns for the Republican party.  She is frank, generous, and 
open hearted, a friend of the unfortunate, a champion of many reform causes, 
a hater of sham and hypocrisy.	
  							PG 81

NAMES: HALL, Sophia Dodge	

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: HANSON, 

	Sophia Dodge Hall, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (Hanson) Dodge, 
was born in Rochester, N.H., where her early life was passed.  She was 
educated in the public schools of Boston and at Abbott Academy, Andover, MA.
In January, 1877, she married Hon. Daniel Hall of Dover, where she has 
since resided.  In February 1890, Mrs. Hall was elected department president 
of the New Hampshire Woman's Relief corps, which trust she discharged with 
fidelity and success.  During her administration the Soldiers' Home at Tilton 
was built, and under her supervision was furnished by money contributed by 
the Woman's Relief Corps throughout the state.  This work was performed with 
marked energy, zeal, and executive ability.  In June, 1890, Mrs. Hall was
appointed one of the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Colombian 
Exposition, and to this position brought unusual enthusiasm and intellectual
grasp.  She was also made chairman of woman's work in New Hampshire, in 
which capacity she collected many interesting specimens of women's work, 
which were displayed in the Woman's Building.  Everyone who visited the New
Hampshire house will recall the attractive colonial relics and articles of
historic interest, all of which were secured by her after much effort, and
always by pledges of personal responsibility.  In 1895 she was appointed by
Governor Busiel a member of the Woman's Board for the Atlanta Exposition. 
Mrs. Hall has one son, Arthur Wellesley Hall , born in 1878.  She presides 
over a well-ordered home, and is generous, sympathetic, public spirited, and 
progressive a woman who counts no endeavor too arduous if it is for the 
betterment of her family, city, state, or country.	
 							PG 113	

NAME: BERRY, Winnifred Helen
	
OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: ROBERTS

	This bright brunette is the younger of the very talented daughters 
of Mr. John M. and Mrs. Leah (Roberts) Berry of Farmington where she was born
February 5, 1871.  Of excellent New England ancestry, a quickwit, energy,
and an attractive manner, Miss Berry makes success her willing servant in
whatever she undertakes, whether it be in entertainments for worthy local 
purposes, in teaching, in crayon portraiture or landscape sketching, or in 
quaint and vivid pen-and-ink miniatures, of a startling likeness to their 
subjects.  Miss Berry was graduated in her seventeenth year from the 
Farmington high school and began teaching in her native town in the autumn of
the same year, in the primary department, filling her position with unusual 
ability, until, in the course of time, her merits caused her to be called to 
Concord, where she was assigned to the Penacook school building. an 
advantageous summons to Massachusetts led her to relinquish the Concord 
school in the course of her first year of residence in that city, and to go
to Watertown, where she finds not alone an habitual success in teaching, but
also the many opportunities for culture which can be obtained only in the 
vicinity of a large city.  Thus in her few hours of freedom from school
duties she pursues artistic work under skilled supervision and develops her
fine gift for portraiture.  As a teacher Miss Berry devotes her talent and 
experience to little children, making a specialty of primary work, instead of
changing to one or another of different grades, and this is one of the
secrets of her success as an educator.  It need hardly be said that she is
regarded with the fondest affection by her classes and with cordial 
appreciation by their parents and the school officers.  Possessed of many
resources for recreation, Miss Berry finds music chief of them, and plays 
the piano with a dramatic and poetic sense of her subject, which gives 
exceptional charm to her rendering of a composer's conception.
							PG 133	

NAME: PRICE, Mrs. Evannah S.	

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: STILES;

	The youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Stiles was born in 
Strafford Centre, November 25, 1862, and inherits from both parents the 
sterling qualities of the pioneers of New England.  After attending the 
district school and Austin academy she studied through the course of four 
years at the Putnam high school in Newburyport, Mass., where she was 
graduated in 1881.  The two years succeeding were spent in Farmington 
teaching, whence Miss Stiles went to the schools of Merrimac, Mass., 
remaining until 1888, when on Christmas day she was married to Mr. Osborne W.
Price, formerly of Gilmanton but then of Farmington, where the home of the 
happy couple was made until a short time ago.  Their residence is now in 
Manchester, where Mr. Price is in business.  While a student in school, and 
when occupied in teaching, Mrs. Price studied and taught drawing and 
painting, and after her marriage she found opportunity for farther 
development of her talent in these pursuits, giving strict attention to the 
instruction of excellent masters, and adding to previous accomplishments 
those of painting on china, with her own firing, and of practical designing,
in advanced study of which she spent several months in New York before her
removal to Manchester.  All her work is characterized by a distinct 
originality, and a delicate yet spirited conception and execution in both 
outline and color, and her charming sketches and exquisite china have found 
a ready market, while manufacturers of silk and other fabrics have seized at
once upon her graceful designs.  Many favorite patterns in silkoline, and 
similar goods all over the country, are of Mrs. Price's designing, one 
especially adapted to decorative purposes being the thistle pattern, and
should her health permit of close devotion to the work which is her true
vocation, laurels will be added with every year to those already 
acknowledged as hers by the unquestioned authority in art, in recognition of
her genius and the patient diligence.  Which alone gives to natural gifts a 
sphere of usefulness.	
							PG 141	

NAME: KNAPP, Mrs. William

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: HALE; HUSSEY;

 	The fine farms of Barrington have given to the advancement of the
world some very bright men and women, and a notable one of the latter is a 
daughter of Dea. Thomas and Mrs. Susan (Hale) Hussey.  Her studies in the 
country schools were supplemented by terms at the New Hampshire Conference 
Seminary and Gilmanton Academy in the spring and autumn, the alternating 
seasons being occupied by teaching.  In 1854 Miss Hussey entered the State 
Normal school at Framingham, Mass., from which she graduated in July 1855.
Following a season of teaching in her native town, she became an assistant
in the Great Falls high school, but resigned her position in 1858, for one
more lucrative in Stoneham, Mass., whence she was called in 1861 to become
the first assistant in the high school named, where she taught with marked 
success until 1865.  After teaching a select school in her own town, she 
married in 1866 the Hon. William D. Knapp, a distinguished lawyer of 
Somersworth, where she has since resided.  Mrs. Knapp, a member of the 
Pascataqua Congregational Club, and trained to good deeds from her childhood,
has been prominent in religious work, and in the many avenues by which women
of like mind and culture may aid in the progress of civilization.  The love
and admiration of everyone associated with her have been deservedly hers. 
From 1885 to 1893-94, she was president of the Strafford Conference of the 
New Hampshire Branch of the Woman's Board of Missions, and her resignation of 
the office was received with the strongest reluctance on the part of the 
conference.  She has been a frequent contributor of poems and sketches to 
both secular and religious papers and magazines, and has delighted readers of
her home publication by "Old Time Stories," and by reminiscences of the high
school.   A history in rhyme, written for the first reunion of alumni of the
school in 1877, was published later in book form.  Her literary work is most
refined and charming, in keeping with her whole life and character.	 
							PG 147	

NAME: FOWLER, Laura Wentworth

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: NOWELL; 

	No woman is better known in Boston's musical and club circles than
Laura Wentworth Fowler, daughter of Amasa and Susan (Nowell) Wentworth, born 
in Somersworth, June 11, 1837.  She is a descendant of Elder William 
Wentworth, from whom Lieutenant-Governor John, and Governors Benning and 
John, Wentworth also descended.  Four of her ancestors fought at Bunker Hill,
which admits her to the Daughters of the American Revolution.  She early 
displayed rare musical ability, and at the age of eleven began to play the 
organ in church.  Graduating from Abbot Academy, Andover, Mass., in 1860, 
where she taught music during her course, she took charge of the musical 
department of  Lagrange Female College, Tennessee, but returned North in a
year on account of the war, and became teacher of mathematics, languages, 
and music in the Concord (N.H.) High School.  During her second year here, 
she was called to the musical department of Monticello seminary, Illinois, 
remaining four years.  Returning East she took charge of the departments of 
music and painting in Elmira College, New York, which she directed 
successfully until her marriage, six years later, with William Fowler, a 
gallant officer of the Union army during the war, who died November 26, 1874.
Subsequently she taught eight years in Kentucky.  Mrs. Fowler has superior
literary as well as musical abilities, and is a prominent member of the 
N.E.W.P.A.  She is a life member of the Bostonian Society, being the first 
woman admitted; a member of the New Hampshire's Daughters, director of the 
Massachusetts Federation of Woman's Clubs, and vice-president of the General 
Federation of Clubs of America.  She is also connected with a score of other
clubs and organizations, among which her favorite is the Abbot Academy Club,
of which she is president and founder.  Mrs. Fowler is endowed with a 
charming personality, and her chief characteristics are tact, will, energy, 
and enthusiasm.	
 							PG 163	

NAME: HOWE, Emma S.	

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: NUTTER; WENTWORTH;

	Emma S. Howe, known throughout New England as a gifted singer, a 
superior teacher, and a most charming young woman, was born in Wolfeborough, 
and is a loyal daughter of that beautiful lakeside town, though her parents,
Thomas Wentworth and Abbie (Nutter) Howe, were from Rochester, the former 
having died in 1890.  At eight years of age she began to study the piano, and 
later, at the New England Conservatory, her vocal powers were developed so 
thoroughly as to warrant a request from the faculty for her appearance at the
commencement concert.  On this occasion she rendered the difficult Polonaise
from Mignon with marvelous effect, and from that time her success was 
assured.  While in New York the following spring, then barely eighteen years
of age, she accepted the position of leading soprano in Plymouth church. 
Here she won warm friends and admirers, who deeply regretted her 
determination to reappear in concert work.  In 1882 she toured New England 
with Gilmore's band, making a decided success.  Colonel Mapleson pronounced
her voice one of rare sweetness and accuracy, saying: "She is the only 
American singer I have heard who can sing the part of the Queen of Night in 
the Magic Flute.  Miss Howe has been teacher of vocal music for seven years
at Wellesley College, and three years at Wheaton Seminary, at the same time
giving private instruction at home to large numbers of pupils.  She also 
sang for five years in the choir of the Union Congregational church, Boston.
In the summer of 1895, Miss Howe and her mother traveled in Europe.  In 
London and Paris her voice gave much pleasure to well-known musicians.  In 
Austria she visited Baroness von Walhoffen (Pauline Lucca), who was warm in
her praise upon hearing her sing, and while there she was invited to sing in
opera before the emperor, but the time of her departure rendered this 
impossible.  Miss Howe is a valued and interested member of "New Hampshire's 
Daughters."	
							PG 165

	
NAME: SAFFORD, Martha A. Hayes

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: EDGERLY; TASH;

	Not often are towns able to retain the more distinguished of their 
daughters to the years of their womanly prime, but this good fortune is given
to Farmington by Mrs. Safford, the well-known artist.  She is a daughter of
Israel and Anne (Edgerly) Hayes, and descended from notable people of whom 
one was Col. Thomas Tash of the Revolution.  At the age of eighteen she was 
married to James Fearing Safford, formerly of Maine, a veteran of the Civil 
War.  One son, now arrived at manhood, blesses the happy union.  Inheriting 
refined and artistic tastes, and encouraged by her husband, she devoted close
attention to painting and crayon portraiture, under excellent teachers, for 
the years succeeding her marriage, and has become one of the best instructors 
in her specialties, in New Hampshire, and one of the Granite state.  She 
sketches from nature almost invariably, and adds to her unusually correct 
drawing a fine sense of the fitness of things, and an enviable eye for color.
With the magic of her brush, a scene which has pleased us is set again 
before us, in outline true, and in its own beauty of tint; still may we feel
the charm of flower and leaf, the glowing sphere from the willing tree, and
the lesser globe and oval, from shrubs here and there invite us, and still
does the fruit of the vine hold the delicacy of its virgin bloom; while every
accessory of a picture has received its meed of attention from the 
conscientious artist.  Yet not through all these comes her chief pleasure,
for more than the simple delight of the eye is the recalling of the features
of those whom we "have loved long since, yet lost awhile," in which Mrs. 
Safford is especially gifted, working often from the faint shadows of some 
old and imperfect portrait, and completing a likeness which is priceless. 
Any good artist may portray well from life, but one whose intution of the 
spirit is allied to the skill of eye and hand offers to us the gift of 
genius.	
							PG 167	

NAME: SAWYER, Mrs. Charles H.	

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: COWAN; HODGDON; COFFIN; HALL; SEVERANCE;
	
	Susan Ellen, daughter of Dr. James Wellington and Elizabeth (Hodgdon) 
Cowan, descended from Peter Coffin who came to Dover in 1636, and Major Caleb
Hodgdon of Revolutionary fame, was born in Dover August 13, 1839, educated 
in the public schools of her native city, and at Abbot Academy, Andover, 
Mass.  She was married February 8, 1865, to Charles Henry Sawyer, governor of 
New Hampshire 1887-89.  Their children are William Davis, married 
Gertrude, daughter of Hon. Joshua G. Hall of Dover; Charles Francis, married 
Gertrude, daughter of Hon. Henry W. Severance, of San Francisco; James Cowan;
Edward; Elizabeth Coffin.  The three elder sons are alumni of Yale 
University.  William and Charles are associated in business with  their 
father.  James is taking post-graduated studies at Harvard, Edward is an 
under-graduate at Yale, and Elizabeth is a member of Mrs. Stearns's School at 
Amherst, Mass.  Few women have been so blessed and happy in their domestic 
life as Mrs. Sawyer.  She is a generous and delightful hostess, welcoming 
many guests in her home in Dover, and during the summer months she is the 
center of happy companies in the cottage on the beautiful heights at York. 
She is a devoted member of the First Church, president of the Woman's 
Auxiliary to the Y.M.C.A., in which position she has been remarkably efficient
and helpful; Regent for the Dover Chapter of the Society of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution, and a member of the Colonial Dames.  
Mrs. Sawyer has traveled widely, and is happily conversant on topics of home 
and foreign interest.  She combines great strength of character with rare 
womanly sensibilities.  She reminds one of the saying of Ruskin:  "The best
women are indeed necessarily the most difficult to know:  they are 
recognized chiefly in the happiness of their husbands and the nobleness of
their children:  they are only to be divined, not discerned by strangers."
							PG 209	

NAME: WENDELL, Caroline R.	

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: JENNINGS; HOLMES; 

	Miss C.R. Wendell has always resided in Dover, the place of her 
birth.  On the paternal side she is of Dutch ancestry, her father, Daniel H.
Wendell, Esq., being of the same stock as Wendell Phillips and Oliver 
Wendell Holmes.  The Wendell family is contemporaneous with the old 
Knickerbocker families of New York, Evert Jansen Wendell, the original 
ancestor in this country, having emigrated from Holland and settled in Albany
about 1640.  Her mother, who was a woman of remarkable strength of character,
was descended from the English family of Jennings.  In early womanhood, Miss
Wendell's life was heavily shadowed by the death of an only brother and 
sister.  The former was a prominent surgeon in the War of the Rebellion, and 
died a few years after its close from the overwork and exposure of army life.
Inheriting a strong love for benevolent and reform movements, Miss 
Wendell's life has been a busy one.  She is a woman of strong individuality 
and progressive thought, possessing keen perception and fine executive 
ability, combined with quick sympathy, broad charity, and a consecrated 
spirit.  For thirteen years she was corresponding secretary of the New 
Hampshire Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and devoted herself with 
untiring zeal to the work of the organization, much of its steady and 
successful growth being due to her efforts.  She was chiefly instrumental in
securing the passage of the Scientific Temperance School law and has labored 
earnestly for its enforcement.  In 1892 she was elected state president which 
position she still holds; and she is also president of the trustees of the 
W.C.T.U. Mercy Home for girls at East Manchester.  Miss Wendell is an active 
member of other philanthropic societies, a thorough believer in equal 
suffrage and always ready to aid any cause that has for its object not only
the advancement of her sex but the betterment of humanity.	
							PG 229
	
NAME: JONES, Clara Augusta

OTHER ASSOCIATED NAMES: ROBERTS; CRANE; EARL OF SURRY, HENRY; 

	Clara Augusta Jones was born in Farmington, N.H., within a half mile 
of the childhood's home of the late Vice-President Henry Wilson, and was the 
daughter of Jeremiah Jones and his wife, Tamson Roberts.  Her grandmother on 
her father's side was the accomplished daughter of Col. Crane, an officer in 
the British army, and a lineal descendant of Henry, Earl of Surry.  Her 
maternal grandfather served in the Revolution and at the close of the war 
walked home from Charleston, S.C., barefooted, with a handful of worthless 
continental money to recompense him for long years of hard and perilous 
service.  Clara Augusta was the child of her father's old age, and a very 
precocious child, as well.  Her first published article appeared when she was
but thirteen years of age, and since that time she has written continuously,
for newspapers, magazines, and periodicals without number.  Perhaps her best
known articles are the "Kate Thorn" papers and essays, which have been copied
widely, as well as translated into several languages for use in foreign 
periodicals.  The Lippincotts of Philadelphia published a volume of her poems
some years ago, and she is the author of several humorous books, the most 
noted of which is "The Adventures of a Bashful Bachelor."  Nearly eighteen 
years ago she was married to Mr. Elbridge S. Trask, and resides in Framingham
Centre, Mass., in one of the old historic mansions of that charming suburban
town.  Mrs. Trask is a member of the New England Woman's Press Association,
of the Daughters of New Hampshire, of the Gen. J.G.Foster W.R.C., of the 
Framingham Woman's Club, and a well-known worker in the order of the Patrons
of Husbandry.  She is still in the literary harness, and finds herself often 
pressed for time to meet her numerous engagements.
								PG 239