GENEALOGY EXPRESS

 

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PHILLIS WHEATLEY
Great Poetess, Guest of the Royal Family.  Friend and Associate to Lady Huntingdon.

     PHILLIS WHEATLEY was a woman whose greatness of soul the whole world admired.  Her generosity was such that it evaded on demands and saved the receivers the confusion of requests.  In referring to Webster's unabridged biographical names, we find that she was born in Africa, 1753.  Professor William T. Alexander, in his History of the Colored Race in America, in paying tribute to Phillis Wheatley and the colored race, beautifully says:  "There is little doubt but when once furnished with those keys the colored race are capable of reaching and unlocking all the doors accessible to any other people.  We need not dip into the future for the law of higher inheritance to note examples of this truth, or even to depend entirely upon the present, with its increased facilities to this end, but may go back and take an instance from the dark days of slavery, and of one direct from Africa.  We refer to Phillis Wheatley, who, tho' a "child of Africa," was, for her literary talent and virtue, accorded the highest distinction and honor both in the United States and Europe.  It seems that she was brought over to this county in a slave vessel from Africa when but a little child."
     The following from her biography by Benson J. Lossing,

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L.L. D., will be interesting.  The wife of a respectable citizen, of Boston, named Wheatley, went to the slave market in that city in 1761, to purchase a child-negress, that she might rear her to be a faithful nurse in the old age of her mistress.  She saw many plump children, but one of delicate frame, modest demeanor and clad in nothing but a piece of dirty carpet wrapped about her, attracted her attention, and Mrs. Wheatley took her home in her chaise, and gave her the name of Phillis.  The child seemed to be about seven years of age, and exhibited remarkable intelligence, and apt imitative powers.  Mrs. Wheatley 's daughter taught the child to read and write, and her progress was wonderful.  She appeared to have very little recollection of her birthplace, but remembered seeing her mother pour out water before the sun at its rising.  With the development of her intellectual faculties, her moral nature kept pace, and she was greatly loved by all who knew her for her amiability and perfect docility.  She soon attracted the attention of men of learning; and as Phillis read books with great avidity, they supplied her.  Piety was a ruling sentiment in her character, and tears born of gratitude and love for her mistress often moistened her eyes.  As she grew to womanhood her thoughts found expression through her pen, sometimes in prose, but more often in poetry, and she was an invited guest in the families of the rich and learned, in Boston.  Her mistress treated her as a child and was extremely proud of her.  At the age of about sixteen years Phillis became a member of the "Old South Church," then under the charge of Dr. Sewall.  It was about this time that she wrote the poem of which a verse below is an extract.  Earlier than this she had written poetry, poems remarkable for both vigor of thought, and pathos in expression.  Her memory in some particulars appears to have been extremely defective.  If she composed a poem in the night and did not write it down, it would be gone from her forever in the morning.  Her kind mistress gave her a light and writing materials at her bedside that she might lose nothing, and in cold weather a fire was always made in her room at night.

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     In the summer of 1773 her health gave way, and a sea voyage was recommended.  She accompanied a son of Mr. Wheatley to England, and there she was cordially received by Lady Huntingdon, Lord Dartmouth and other people of distinction.  While there her poems, which had been collected and dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon, were published, and attracted great attention.  The book was embellished with a portrait of her, from which our picture was copied.  She was persuaded to remain in London until the return of the Court, so as to be presented to the king, but, hearing of the declining health of her mistress, she hastened home.  That kind friend was soon laid in the grave, and Phillis grieved as deeply as any of her children.  Mr. Wheatley died soon after, and then his excellent daughter was laid by the side of her parents.  Phillis was left destitute, and the sun of her earthly happiness went down.  A highly intelligent colored man of Boston, named John Peters, offered himself in marriage to the poor orphan, and was accepted.  He proved utterly unworthy of the excellent woman he had wedded, and her lot became a bitter one indeed.  Misfortune seems to have expelled her muse, for we have no production of her pen bearing a later date than those in her volume published in 1773, except a poetical epistle to General George Washington, in 1775, and a few scraps written about that time.  Washington replied to her letter on the 28th of February, 1776.  His letter was written at his headquarters at Cambridge:
     MISS PHILLIS: Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach my hands till the middle of December, time enough you will say to have given an answer ere this.  Granted.  But a variety of important occurrences continually interposing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming, but not real neglect.  I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant lines you enclosed, and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents, in honor of which as a tribute justly due to

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you, I would have published the poem, had I not been apprehensive that, while I only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity.  This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it a place in the public prints.  If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near headquarters I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations.

     A few years of misery shattered the golden bowl of her life, and in a wretched apartment, in an obscure part of Boston, that gifted wife and mother, whose youth had been passed in ease, and even luxury, was allowed to perish alone!  She died on the 5th of December, 1794, when she was about thirty-one years of age.  The following is an extract from one of her poems previously referred to:

     Among other noticeable features in this touching story, we find that the great George Washington— "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen" —did not hesitate to speak in the highest terms of the genius of this gifted colored woman, nor to pay her an honor which might well be coveted by the greatest intellects of our land to-day.
     And Goldsmith adds:

     Under the caption of "Women of the Century" Mrs. Hannafurd, in her illustrious work, "Daughters of America,"

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says of Phillis Wheatley: She was one of the four illustrious women who dwelt in the United States previous to the United States century.  She (Phillis) was brought from Africa to Boston in 1761.  When but six years old, she wrote a volume of poems, which was published in London in 1773, while she was in that city with the son of her owner, for she was a slave.  She was educated through the favor of her mistress, and was quite proficient in the Latin language.  A poem, which she sent to General Washington, gave her enduring fame.  Her life bore evidence that the colonial women, though some of them slaveholders, were not destitute of a lively interest in those the custom of the times placed wholly in their charge.  Phillis herself is a proof that even African women, despised as they have been, have intellectual endowments, and with culture and Christian attainment may rival their fairer sisters in the expression of high thoughts in poetic phrase."

BROUGHT TO LIGHT
Phillis Wheatley Poem, Dedicated to General Washington.

     From the Boston Courant: Last week we attempted to offer a few remarks on the life and uncollected works of Phillis Wheatley, thinking thereby that the attention of our readers might once more be called to the contemplation of her genius and writings.  If we have been successful, if we have succeeded in arousing even a transitory interest in her now waning memory, we could ask no more.  But we shall take advantage of it, transient as it may be, to offer to the public Phillis' letter and poem to General Washington.
     This poem was sent to General George Washington just after he took command of the continental army in 1775, and was intended to celebrate that event; by Sparks, the biographer of Washington; by Williams, our best historian; in truth, by almost all writers of this period, this poem was supposed to be lost.  But such was not the case.  The poem was sent to the publisher by the old general himself, though he said otherwise in his letter to Phillis.

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Phillis Wheatley to General Washington.

     SIR: I have taken the liberty to address your excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible to its inaccuracies.  Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, together with the fame of your virtues excite sensations not easy to suppress.  Your generosity, therefore, I presume, will pardon the attempt.  Wishing your excellency all possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am your excellency's most obedient, humble servant.

Providence, October 26, 1775.

HIS EXCELLENCY, GENERAL WASHINGTON.

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     It will be seen that Phillis refers to America as Columbia, the origin of which saying is erroneously ascribed by historians to Dr. Dwight.  But the name Columbia must have been applied to America long before Dr. Dwight, and possibly before either writer lived.
     The line beginning "When Gallic power," etc., refers to the old French and Indian war, which began in 1755.    

                                                                                                             "FERRETT"

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FRANCES E. W. HARPER.
Temperance Lecturer and Authoress

     FRANCES E W. HARPER was born in Maryland in 1825 and reared there.  Her early education was meagre, having left school at the age of fourteen.  She is truly a self-made woman.  As a lecturer she has few equals.  She has also contributed largely to the most prominent Afro-American journals.  Her poetical and prose writings are extensively read by white people as well as black and she has furnished inspiration to many of the young writers of the race.  Of late years she has been prominently connected with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and has augmented the work among the women of her race.
     When great minds agree upon a fact which is thus made

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popular, lesser minds have nothing more nor less to do than assent.  Mrs. F. E. W Harper, such as Mrs. Phoebe A. Hannoford has already briefly described, possesses the happy faculty of equilibrium upon all the prominent issues of the day.

Mrs. F. E. W. HARPER, Philadelphia

Eloquent, fluent in speech, forcible in argument, versatile with the pen, rhythmical in poetry, logical in prose, and blessed with the rareness of congeniality, she becomes at once to those who have heard or read her thoughts a lover, a friend, yea! a disciple.

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Her ''Story of the Nile " is one of her latest achievements, and as our power of judging is meagre we fully and freely assent 'to its grandness.  Dr. Marshall W Taylor says: Of the Negro race in the United States since 1620, there have appeared but four women whose careers stand out so far, so high and so clearly above all others of their sex, that they can with strict propriety and upon well established grounds be denominated great.  These are Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Amanda Smith.
     Mrs. Harper, possessing superior advantages, is superior to any one of the four great women here mentioned in mental drill and versatile literary culture; she is an erudite scholarly woman; she too is a reformer, an agitator, but not in the rough, or with any political tendency; she is polished, and may be called the greatest of school-made moral philosophers yet developed among the women of the Negro race.  If Sojourner Touth was a blind giant, Frances Harper was an enlightened one.  Standing outside of the church and churchly relations, Mrs. Harper is without an equal among Negro men of her times and type of thought.
     As early as 1845, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper began to figure conspicuously as a literary leader and teacher, starting out in her career as assistant instructress under the principalship of, now, Bishop John M. Brown.  Whether she has kept pace with this learned prelate, we leave our readers to judge.  Her activities then as now, in the cause of the Negro, battling for its education and equal rights, startle us with love and admiration, while our hearts go out in search of even the crumbs of her wonderful pioneer life.  As to the world did God give Adam and Eve, not only to dwell upon the earth, but to be master over every living creature, so did he almost spontaneously give to the Negro race two people, a man and a woman, to stand out beyond opposition intellectually, the man Rt. Rev. Bishop D. A. Payne, the woman Mrs. Frances E. Watkins Harper, the equals of any of our nineteenth century civilization.       Phoeba A. Hanaford, in her "Daughters of America," under the caption of "Women Lecturers," says:

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Francis E. W Harper is one of the most eloquent women lecturers in the country.  As one listens to her clear, plaintive, melodious voice, and follows the flow of her musical speech in her logical presentation of truth, he can but be charmed with her oratory and rhetoric, and forgets that she is of the race once enslaved in our land.  She is one of the colored women of whom white women may be proud, and to whom the abolitionists can point and declare that a race which could show such women never ought to have been held in bondage.  She lectures on temperance, equal rights, and religious themes, and has shown herself able in the use of the pen.
     Prof. George W Williams, in his "History of the Negro Race in America," says of our subject: "She was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1825.  She was not permitted to enjoy the blessings of early educational training, but in after years proved herself to be a woman of most remarkable intellectual powers.  She applied herself to study, most assiduously  and when she had reached woman's estate she was well educated.
     She developed early a fondness for poetry, which she has since cultivated, and some of her efforts are not without merit.  She excels as an essayist and lecturer.  She has been heard upon many of the leading lecture platforms of the country; and her efforts to elevate her sisters have been crowned with most signal success.
     A clear, strong, musical voice, capable of expressing all human feelings and passions, is among the most desirable qualities in the formation of a consummate orator.

Her words have such a melting flow,                     And speak of truth so sweetly well,                They drop like heaven's serenest snow,                     And all is brightness where they fall. "There is a charm in delivery, a magical art, That thrills, like a kiss, from the lips to the heart; 'Tis the glance, the expression, the well-chosen word, By whose magic the depths of the spirit are stirred — The smile—the mute gesture—the soul-stirring pause — The eye's sweet expression, that melts while it awes — The lip's soft persuasion—its musical tone: Oh! such are the charms of that eloquent one."

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     A hearer might well say, as he listens to the charming accents of her musical voice:

Thy sweet words drop upon the ear so soft, As rose leaves on a well; and I could listen, As though the immortal melody of heaven Were wrought into one word—that word a whisper — That whisper all I want from all I love.

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EDMONIA LEWIS,
Sculptress

     NICHOLAS FRANCIS COOKE, M. D., LL.D., in his work styled Satan in Society, in his article, What can Woman Do in the World? says, as sculptors there are already several who have achieved both fame and fortune.  In a foot-footnote we find the following tribute from his liberal and descriptive pen: "Edmonia Lewis, a colored sculptress, not yet twenty-five years old, whose studio at Rome is sought by the cultivated and wealthy, and whose works command almost fabulous prices, furnishes a remarkable instance of perseverance, not only against disadvantages of sex, but the still greater obstacles of race and color.  Her father a Negro, and her mother an Indian, both dying early, she was "raised" among the Chippewa Indians, but, through the generosity of her brother, was enabled to obtain a few years at school.  Thence she made her way to Boston, where she landed penniless and friendless.  Wandering abstractly through School street, she gazed in wonder and admiration upon the statue of Franklin, and, to use her own words, "was seized with the desire of making something like that man standing there."  She asked a kindly looking lady "what it was made of," and being informed, sought the studio of Mr. Brockett, from whom she obtained some clay, some modeling tools and "a baby's foot."  In about three weeks she returned with a tolerable reproduction of the foot, which the artist commended, and lent her "a woman's hand."  Meanwhile she made herself a set of implements the exact counterpart of those she had borrowed, and, being equally successful

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in modeling the hand, she received from the artist a letter to a lady who gave her eight dollars.  With this modest "capital" she established a studio, on the door of which a simple tin sign announced:  "Edmonia Lewis, Artist."  From that time forward her career has been one uninterrupted triumph.  Her latest work, "Hagar," is valued at six thousand dollars, and has earned a handsome revenue by its exhibition.
     Among; the great women in Daughters of America, we find her classed among the women artists of their first century in art.
     Phœba A. Hanaford justly says Edmonia Lewis is entitled to be mentioned with the women artists of our first century. Let "The Christian Register" tell her story:
     "All who were present at Tremont Temple on the Monday evening of the presentation to Rev. Mr. McGrimes of the marble group of 'Forever Free,' executed by Miss Edmonia Lewis, must have been deeply interested.  No one, not born a subject to the "Cotton King, could look upon that piece of sculpture without profound emotion.  The noble figure of the man, his very muscles seeming to swell with gratitude; the expression of the right now to protect, with which he throws his arm around his kneeling wife; the 'Praise de Lord' hovering on their lips; the broken chain,— all so instinct with life, telling in the very poetry of stone the story of the last ten years.  And when it is remembered who created this group, an added interest is given to it.  Who threw so much expression into those figures?  What well-known sculptor arranged with such artistic grace those speaking forms?  Will any one believe it was the small hands of a small girl that wrought the marble and kindled the life within it?— a girl of dusky hue, mixed Indian and African, who not more than eight years ago sat down on the steps of the City Hall to eat the dry crackers with which alone her empty purse allowed her to satisfy her hunger; but as she sat there and thought of her dead brother, of her homeless state, something caught her eye, the hunger of the stomach ceased, but the hunger of the soul began.  That quiet statue of the grand old Franklin had touched the

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electric spark, and kindled the latent genius which was enshrined within her, as her own group was in the marble till her chisel brought it out.  For weeks she haunted the spot, and the State House, where she could see Washington and Webster.  She asked questions and found that such things were made of clay.  She got a lump of clay, shaped her some sticks, and her heart divided between art and the great struggle for freedom, which had just received the seal of Colonel Shows' blood.  She wrought out, from photographs and her own ideal, an admirable bust of him.  This made the name of Edmonia Lewis known in Boston.  The unknown waif on the steps of the City Hall had, in a few short months, become an object of interest to a large circle of those most anxious about the great problem of the development of the colored race in their new position.
     We next hear of Edmonia in Rome, where her perseverance, industry, genius and naivete made her warm friends.  Miss Charlotte Cushman and Miss Hosmer took great interest in her.  Her studio was visited by all strangers, who looked upon the creations of this untaught maiden as marvelous.  She modeled there "The Freed Woman on First Hearing of Her Liberty," of which it is said: " It tells with much eloquence a painful story."  No one can deny that she has distinguished herself in sculpture; not, perhaps, in the highest grade, but in the most pleasing form.  Six months ago she returned to her own country to sit once again on the steps of the City Hall, just to recall the "then," and to contrast it with the "now."  "Then," hungry, heart-weary, no plan for the future.  "Now," the hunger of the soul satisfied; freedom to do, to achieve, won by her own hands, friends gained; the world to admire.
     She brought with her to this country a bust of "our" poet, said to be one of the best ever taken. It has been proposed by some of Longfellow's friends to have it put in marble for Harvard.  It would be a beautiful thought that the author of Hiawatha should be embalmed in stone by a descendant from Minnehaha.  And certainly nothing can be more appropriate than the presentation to Rev. Mr. Grimest the untiring friend

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of his race, the indomitable worker, the earnest preacher, of this rare work, "Forever Free," uniting grace and sentiment, the offspring of an enthusiastic soul, who consecrates her genius to truth and beauty
     Professor George G. W Williams in his History of the Negro Race in America says: "Edmonia Lewis, the Negro sculptress, is in herself a great prophecy of the possibilities of her sisters in America.  Of lowly birth, left an orphan when quite young, unable to obtain a liberal education, she nevertheless determined to be something and somebody.
     This ambitious Negro girl has won a position as an artist, a studio in Rome, and a place in the admiration of the lovers of art on two continents.  She has produced many meritorious works of art, the most noteworthy being Hagar in the Wilderness; a group of the Madonna with the Infant Christ and Tiro Adoring Angels; Forever Free; Hiawatha^s Wooing; a bust of Longfellow, the Poet; a bust of John Brown, and a medallion portrait of Wendell Phillips. The Madonna was purchased by the Marquis of Bute, Disraeli's Lothair.
     She has been well received in Rome, and her studio has become an object of interest to travelers of all countries.

MRS. BLANCHE V. H. BROOKS,
Able Pioneer Teacher, Able Writer, President W. C. T. U.

     MRS. BLANCHE V. H. BROOKS, the subject of this sketch, is deserving a place in the galaxy of noted Negro women.  She was born in Monroe, Michigan, where she lived until thirteen years of age.
     The prejudice which forbade the girl entering the young ladies' seminary with her associates in the high school only paved the way for her entering the world-renowned Oberlin college.  The prejudice before mentioned induced her parents to send her to Oberlin, where she could procure the best educational facilities; here she remained until she was grad-

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uated in the class of '60, endearing herself to the faculty teachers and to her classmates.
     Though quite young at the time of the late war, and the call for teachers for Freedmen came, she responded to Rev. George Whipple: "Here am I; send me."  Leaving home, friends, and all comforts, she entered upon her life work in that demoralized region, demoralized because of the effects of the late war.
     The hospital needed nurses; the Freedmen,—men, women and children—needed teachers, not only in books, but in every department, and there she found earnest, hard work; when not in the school-room night after night she could be found by the cot of the sick and dying.

MRS. BLANCHE V. H. BROOKS

     So firm an advocate of temperance is she that through her influence she was instrumental in saving many from drunkards' graves; through her influence an opening was made for other young women to go to the South land. When her labor was no longer needed as a pioneer she returned to the North to re-engage in school work. To direct young minds is a task for which Blanche V H. Brooks is fitted by her natural endowment of taste, judgment, firmness and decision of character, softened and modified by sweetness of temperament.
     For seventeen years she has been engaged' in the public schools of Knoxville.  Since her graduation, until the present time, the productions from her pen have been a source of entertainment and instruction.  As we before mentioned, she is a strong advocate of the temperance cause; for five years

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she has held the position of president of the W C. T. U., and works earnestly, it may seem, in season and out of season, to bring the wine-drinking habit into disfavor.

MRS. DELLA IRVING HAYDEN,
Eminent Educator.

     AT the close of the Civil war we find the subject of our sketch in the town of Tarboro, N. C., without a mother's care, her mother having in the early days of the war moved to the "Old Dominion."

MRS. DELLA IRVING HAYDEN.

     In her incipiency she knew not the care of a mother, but had a loving grandmother to whom she was devoted with all the devotion a child could bestow.  Though separated for years by landscape, there continued in the mother's breast that love and devotion that are peculiar to her sex; hence she returned in search of her lost child in 1865.  Finding her in vigorous health, she, as the shepherd doth the lost sheep, took her child upon her breast, and over rocky steeps and swollen streams, wound her way back to Virginia.  As the infant grew she proved to be of a brilliant mind, and even when but a child exhibited great tact in the management of little folks around her.  There being no free schools in operation at that day for colored children, she was taught to spell by

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a white friend, who consented to teach her at the request of her mother.
     From an old Webster spelling book she made her first start, and soon learned as far as "baker," a great accomplishment in those days.  After getting a foretaste of an education she then, a young miss, became very anxious for an education.  Free schools were not yet in existence, so she entered a school seven miles away in Nansemond county.  This school was under the control of the Freedman's bureau, and was taught by a Mr. A. B. Colis, of New Jersey.  The next year her parents moved from Nansemond county to Franklin, South Hampton county, Virginia, where she entered the public school.
     In school she was obedient, docile, kind and punctual.  Out of school she was the delight of her playmates and apparently the life of the school.
     Early in life she was converted and joined the Baptist church.  As a Christian she was a shining light and an ardent worker in the cause of Christianity.
     Years and deeds having hastened her near the verge of womanhood, she became a faithful teacher and an ardent worker in the Sabbath-school, to which work she became very much attached.
     She was secretary for Sunday-school and church clerk for several years.
     In 1872 she entered the Hampton Normal and Agricultural institute with very limited means, with none to look to but a widowed mother.  And just here it is fitting to say that that mother was a mother in the truest sense.  For she made great sacrifice to help her daughter through school.  Lapse of years having brought her to the age of womanhood, we may now call her Miss Irving.  She being of an industrious turn of mind and eager to go through school, was glad to do any work assigned her to assist in paying school bills.  During her school days at Hampton she stood high in the esteem of both her schoolmates and teachers.  In her second term in school she made the acquaintance of Mrs. G. M. Jones, of Philadel-

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phia, who gave her some financial aid, and has ever since been a warm and devoted friend.
     In 1874 Miss Irving (as she was then), having a determined will of her own, and hearing continual appeal of her people to "come over in Macedonia and help us," could no longer resist the pitiful cry, but laid down the pursuit of her studies, and, with that burning zeal of a missionary, laid hold of her work that she had for so long desired.  By so doing she did much to dispel the gloom which overshadowed her people, and financially enabled herself to resume her studies in 1875.  Her first school-house was a little log-cabin in a section of her own county known as Indian Town.
     Her first term was marked with great success, and she filled the first place in the hearts of the people among whom she labored.
     There she organized a Sunday-school in which she acted as teacher, chorister and superintendent.  So great was the love of the people for her that they said they didn't believe that the county paid her enough for the valuable services she rendered them, and as a unit came together and made up the deficiency as nearly as they could, for they thought that currency could not compensate for the great good and the blessings that she had been the means of bestowing upon them.  Her second term was taught four miles from this place, where it was difficult to find a family near the school with sufficient room to board a teacher (most of the houses having only one room).  She was sent to such a house to board.  This was too much for the young teacher.  The people looked upon her as a jewel and would do anything to please her, so she called the parents together and they willingly united and built another room, the teacher furnishing the nails.
     In 1875 she returned to the Hampton Normal and Agricultural institute and resumed her studies.  In 1877 she graduated with honor and was the winner of a $20 prize, offered to the best original essayist of the class.  On her return home to resume the work among her people, to which she felt so closely espoused, she was elected principal of the town public

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school.  Here she met with some competition for the position, but energy, push and competency always hold sway over all opposition when fair play is granted.  She outstripped her rivals and filled the position with credit three years.  She was looked upon as the spiritual, educational, and political adviser of her neighborhood, for the colored people.  In the church and Sunday-school she had no peer, for both minister and Sunday-school superintendent sought her advice as to the best means of spiritualizing the church and enlivening the Sunday school.  She stands in the ranks among the best educators of her race.  Through her influence and recommendation a great many young men and women have gained admission into some of the best institutions of learning in the United States.  Many of them she assisted financially while in school from her scanty income, which was a sacrifice, but a pleasure.  Quite a number of them have graduated and are now filling honorable positions.
     As a politician she was so well informed, and could discuss so intelligently the public issues of the day, that in her town, in the campaign of 1884, she was styled the "Politician's Oracle."  She, as did Paul, ceased not day nor night to warn her people of the danger that awaited them.  While teaching she did not fail to practice economy, for she saved means to lift a heavy debt off her property, which she mortgaged to secure means to finish her education.
     In 1880 she married Mr. Lindsey Hayden, an accomplished gentleman who was principal of the public school of Liberty (now Bedford City), Virginia.  Unfortunately for her, Mr. Hayden lived only a few months after marriage.  During his short illness Mr. Hayden found in her every requisite of a true wife and ever his administering angel.  After the death of her devoted husband, she resigned the position as first assistant teacher in the school in which her husband had so recently been principal, and returned to Franklin to live with her widowed mother.  Notwithstanding all hearts went out in sympathy for her in her bereavement, there was a sort of mingled joy at her return to her old field of labor, since it

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seemed a matter of impossibility to fill her place as a worker among her people.  In the fall of 1881 she was again elected principal of the town school, which position she held for nine years.  As a temperance lecturer and worker in general, the United States can not boast of one more ardent.  She served three years as president of the W C. T. U and the Home Missionary Society, organized by Mrs. Marriage Allen, the wonderful messenger of England, and for four years recording secretary of the county Sunday-school union, and one year corresponding secretary of the Bethany Baptist Sunday-school convention.
     She has organized a great many temperance societies and hundreds have taken the pledge.  She is at present president of the Virginia Teachers' Temperance Union, and an active worker and officer of the Virginia Teachers' Association.
     In 1890 she was elected lady principal of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, which position she now holds.  Says General S. C. Armstrong, principal of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute:
     "Mrs. Delia Irving Hayden was at Hampton school four years, and made her a most excellent record.  We all here, teachers and friends, expected a great deal of her, and have not been disappointed.  She married a noble young man,  Mr. Lindsey Hayden, who soon died—a great loss.  Since her bereavement Mrs. Hayden has devoted herself nobly to her people.  We hope she may be spared many years.  She is among the famous women of her race."

TO THE AUTHOR OF NOTED WOMEN.
     Dear Sir:  I can most heartily endorse all that Mr. W. B. Holland has said of the life and work of MRs. D. I. Hayden, of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, Petersburg, Virginia.  She is indeed an earnest laborer for the elevation of her people, as hundreds of others can testify.  I was once her pupil and by her taught the most useful lessons of life I know.
     Mrs. Hayden is a born teacher, and her sixteen years of

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faithful service in the school-room rightly places her among the Noted Women of the Colored Race.

MRS. A. G. RANDOLPH

HEMPSTEAD, TEXAS.
     Says Miss Maggie I. Stevens:  "Mrs. Della Irving Hayden well deserves the name woman.  I was a pupil in her school thirteen years ago.  It was through her I gained admission into the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.  It is to her (through the help of God) I owe my success in literary attainment.  She has no peer as a quick thinker and an earnest worker."
     James H. Johnston, A. M., president of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, in speaking of her work as connected with that institution, says:  "Since Mrs. Hayden's election as lady principal of this institution, she has exhibited unusual tact and ability in the performance of her duty, thereby gaining the love and esteem of the students and commendation of the board of visitors.  Aside from her special work, she has been exceedingly active in organizing temperance societies among the students and among the teachers of our annual summer session.  As a result of her labors in this direction there now exists in the school a society of more than one hundred members, and among the teachers a State temperance association.  In our school, where once temperance views were unpopular, the leading students are the most active temperance advocates.  Doubtless the teachers of the State organization, in their several localities, have disseminated seed the fruit of which can only be estimated in eternity.  She has also been instrumental in planting in our midst a branch of the "King's Daughters," which has done good work both in the school and out.  In holiday seasons she has been active in good work in the Sunday-school, church and among the people generally.  She does not fail to use her pen and power of speech, which she possesses in no ordinary degree, to advance the Master's kingdom by the promotion of temperance.  Southampton and the State of Virginia need many more Delia I. Haydens."

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     Dr. J. F. Bryant, county superintendent of Southampton county, in speaking of her qualifications as a teacher, said:  "Mrs. Delia I. Hayden taught twelve (12) years in the public
schools of Southampton, to the entire satisfaction of patrons and school officers, the most of the time under my supervision.  She was principal of a large graded school in this place.  Her executive capacity is of a high order.  And she manages a school of a hundred or more pupils with as much dexterity and ease as most teachers with twenty or twenty-five pupils.  Her ambition in her chosen profession is unbounded, and she never tires.
     Beginning with a third grade certificate she was enabled to attend the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, teaching one year and returning to the school the other, until she graduated with distinction at that institute.  She finally obtained a professional certificate, the highest grade
under the public school system, as a reward for her perseverance, energy and ability."
     The foregoing statement will give our readers a faint view only of the wonderfully useful life that Mrs. D. I. Hayden has lived for and among her people.
                                                                       WILLIS B. HOLLAND

-------------------------

MRS. RT. REV. B. W. ARNETT,
W. C. T. U. Advocate.

     "The growing good of the world is largely dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the numbers who lived faithfully a hidden life."
                                                                        Geo Eliot in Middlemarch.

     I HAVE often felt how true this is of the wives of great men.  The patient, unseen, devoted toiler with loving self-forgetfulness, standing ever true at her husband's side, kindling his belief in himself by her pure belief about him, urging him on to his highest endeavor by expecting from him his best, to his highest endeavor by expecting from him his best, applauding his noblest achievements and giving nerve and stimulus to his success, cheerfully sharing and smoothing over

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his disappointments, shielding him from the petty irritations of the domestic machinery, thus making it possible for him to throw his whole soul into the larger outer work for God and the race; soothing, comforting, cheering, inspiring—and then quietly drinking in as her reward the praise and appreciation, lavished by the world on him.
     Mary Louise Gordon was born near Geneva, Pa., Aug. 1st, 1839.  Her parents, William and Hester Ann Gordon, were substantial hardworking people who had removed from Virginia some years before Louise was born.  In 1845 they left Geneva to live in Uniontown, Pa., where they lived till 1865, when they moved to Brownsville, Pa., where they still reside.
     Little Louise was put in school at an early age, Miss Sarah J. Allen being her first teacher, followed by Keziah Brown Jackson and John Bellows in private schools.   Public schools in those days ran four months of the year, and were generally taught by superannuated white teachers without maps or charts or any of the modern furnishings which we think so indispensable in our day.   But they managed to get through the three R's and teach the little folks to "sit up straight and look on the book," and I don't know but these same little folks, now grown up, look back with just as much pleasure on those "good old days" as will our highly developed kindergartners with all their stick laying, and paper folding, and clay molding.
The school house in which my young heroine's ideas were first taught to shoot was the typical log-house, 15x12, adorned with long benches made of slabs with four wooden pegs stuck in for legs. It stood on the site of the present
A. M. E. Church of Uniontown and managed to attract colored children from two and three miles around. Private

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schools supplemented the short terms of the public sessions, serving to keep the children out of the streets certainly, if not for very extensive scholarly advancement.
     Louise at first attended a Presbyterian Sunday-school, Miss Mary Duncan being her first teacher.  When a little later she entered the A. M. E. Sabbath-school, Mr. J. H. Manaway was superintendent and Mrs. Eliza Moxley, still living in Uniontown, her first colored Sabbath-school teacher.  She was converted in 1855 and received into the church by Rev. Solomon H. Thompson and into the class of Alexander Moxley, one of the leading men of Uniontown in his day—long since gone to his reward.
     But the old folks had to be approached! for it was in the good days long ago when parents were asked for their daughters.  And the redoubtable Ben, ready enough with his tongue on all ordinary occasions, had a most stammering and trembling time of it, getting to the point with the "old lady." From early morn till dewy eve he sat.  He exhausted every available topic under the sun.  He talked of the weather, talked of the crops, the probable price of coal and the usual cost of ice.  All of which good mother Gordon submitted to most serenely.  At last about supper time he desperately gulped down a great lump in his throat and took the bull by the horns, plunging blindly right into the middle of the thing.  The old lady smiled on him benignly, saying after a pause: "Well, Bennie, you may have Louise if you can take care of her and will be good to her."  The ice once broken, Ben's tongue was now loosed and discoursed volubly enough on his prospects and hopes for their future.  When father Gordon came in he said, reassuringly: "Well, whatever mam says—whatever mam says."  And so the happy young couple began to prepare for their union.
     But a great shadow casting its gloom clear down a life came athwart their path.  Young Arnett was working on the river when he met with an accident which cost him a limb.  All that friendship, skill and money could devise were exhausted in trying to save the fatal operation.  But after weeks of weary but heroically cheerful suffering the leg was amputated.  Then came the test of love and the triumph of devotion.  The stricken lover stoically released his fiancée, firmly saying: "I cannot ask you to accept a shattered life of

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church and asked the privilege of walking home with her.  It was granted with averted eyes; and, hearts beating furiously, they walked along some distance in silence.  After awhile the lad in a tremulous low tone inquired "Why didn't you write that week?" "I could not, I had a felon on my finger and there was no one to write forme," was the low reply.  And the two foolish hearts, smiling through tears at all their self, inflicted torture, were one again and forever.
     But the old folks had to be approached! for it was in the good days long ago when parents were asked for their daughters.  And the redoubtable Ben, ready enough with his tongue on all ordinary occasions, had a most stammering and trembling time of it, getting to the point with the "old lady." From early morn till dewy eve he sat.  He exhausted every available topic under the sun.  He talked of the weather, talked of the crops, the probable price of coal and the usual cost of ice.  All of which good mother Gordon submitted to most serenely.  At last about supper time he desperately gulped down a great lump in his throat and took the bull by the horns, plunging blindly right into the middle of the thing.  The old lady smiled on him benignly, saying after a pause: "Well, Bennie, you may have Louise if you can take care of her and will be good to her."  The ice once broken, Ben's tongue was now loosed and discoursed volubly enough on his prospects and hopes for their future.  When father Gordon came in he said, reassuringly: "Well, whatever mam says—whatever mam says." And so the happy young couple began to prepare for their union.
     But a great shadow casting its gloom clear down a life came athwart their path.  Young Arnett was working on the river when he met with an accident which cost him a limb.  All that friendship, skill and money could devise were exhausted in trying to save the fatal operation.  But after weeks of weary but heroically cheerful suffering the leg was amputated.  Then came the test of love and the triumph of devotion.  The stricken lover stoically released his fiancée, firmly saying: "I cannot ask you to accept a shattered life of

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poverty and misery on my account."  Louise's own friends and relatives urged that she accept her release, saying: "Of course he can never take care of you now."  But the brave little woman, with lips set and determined, rejoined: "Well, if he can't take care of me, I can take care of him."  Accordingly on the 25th of May, 1858, they are quietly married by Rev. Geo. Brown, President of Madison College at Uniontown.  That heroic little woman could not at that time foresee the rounds of the ladder then hid in cloud and gloom by which the resolute heart to whom she had committed her happiness and the arm on which she leaned would one day mount to the stars and fill the gaze of his fellows by his dauntless courage, untiring energy, unblemished integrity and lofty purpose.  But then, she could only trust and love and inspire.  In those days to be able to meet the rent (twelve dollars a year) for a model three-room cottage to her was wealth; and to preside with wifely thrift and economy over that mansion in union with the husband of her heart's first choice was her ideal of earthly bliss, and richly has she been rewarded.
     At first there was some uncertainty as to what employment young Arnett "would settle down to.  With ready pluck and
energy he took hold of every means in reach of turning an honest penny.  He sold fish, sold coal, tried his hand at barbering and even steeled his conscience to torturing as a dentist.  But Louise declared she didn't want any barber nor dentist either; she thought he could aim higher than that if he tried, and so the ardent young husband was constrained by the sweet insistence of love to buckle his powers down to a course of study preparatory to a more intellectual calling.  Meantime by her skilful needle and untiring thrift Louise successfully kept the wolf from the door, till the needed preparation obtained, her husband was able to earn the enormous salary of twenty-five dollars a month as village school-master, and I
know the black eyes danced when the first month's roll of bills was presented and the lips melted into a roguish smile as she whisipered softly "That's right.  I told you so!"  The other rounds were speedily gained and passed after that; and at what-

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ever station the ambitious toiler found himself—whether the struggling boat hand, the anxious student, the village teacher or an honored instructor at the nation's capital; whether local preacher, presiding elder, or financial secretary of a great connection; whether the eloquent speaker or the powerful worker in the legislative halls of his adopted State; whether as bishop or as president of a theological seminary, there has ever been helpfully near his side a true and loving wife.  Wherever his checkered life has called him to reside, her rare intelligence and womanly tact and, withal, her Christian worthiness and sincere benevolence, have drawn unusual esteem and appreciation to herself and won many friends to her husband.  She is in the highest sense a help-meet for him.
     They have reared a family of children of whom any parents might be proud.  The eldest, Alonzo, now working at home;
Benjamin W. Jr., ex-president of Edward Waters College, Jacksonville, Fla.; Henry Y., professor of mathematics at Allen University, Columbia, S. C; Anna L., music teacher and private secretary of her father; Alphonso T. and Flossie G., attending school; and Daniel A. Payne, "captain of the Arnett house."
     One can scarce resist the temptation to moralize over such a life for the benefit of those luckless young souls who, carried away with the shimmer and tinsel of superficial young dudes, wreck their happiness on good looks and fine clothes by marrying some fellow without purposes or ambitions and with no higher conception of woman than as one to minister to his vanity and pleasures.  But such a life as Mrs. Arnett's preaches its own sermon.  I will not add to it.
                                                                     A. J. COOPER,
                                                                 Tawawa Chimney Corner.

     September 19, 1892.

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JOSEPHINE A. SILONE YATES,
Scientist, Educator, writer, Known as Mrs. R. K. Potter.

     MRS. JOSEPHINE YATES, youngest daughter of Alexander and Parthenia Reeve-Silone, was born in 1859, in Mattituck, Suffolk county, New York, where her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were long and favorably known as individuals of sterling worth, morally intellectually and physically speaking.  On the maternal side she is a niece of Rev. J. B. Reeve, D. D., of Philadelphia, a sketch of whose life appears in "Men of Mark."

MRS. JOSEPHINE A. SILONE YATES

     Mrs. Silone, a woman of whose noble, self-sacrificing life of piety from early youth until her latest hours volumes might be written, began the work of educating her daughter Josephine in her quiet Christian home, consecrating her to the service of the Lord in infancy and earnestly praying that, above all else, the life of her child might be a useful one.  Possessed herself of a fair education, she well knew the value of intellectual  development and spared no pains to surround her daughter with all possible means of improvement; the latter, now grown to womanhood, delights to relate that the earliest event of which she has any distinct remembrance is of this sainted mother taking her upon her knee and teaching her to read from the Bible by requiring her to call the words after her, as she pointed them out.
     Josephine was sent to school at an early age and had already been so well advanced by her mother in reading,

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writing and arithmetic that she was at once able to enter one of the higher classes of the district school, and because of her eagerness and readiness to learn, soon became a favorite with her teachers, although the only colored pupil in the school.  She possessed an excellent memory, good reasoning powers, and at the age of nine was studying physiology and physics, and was well advanced in mathematics.  Through the kindness of a Mrs. Horton, her Sunday-school teacher, she had at this time access to a large and well selected library for young people and in all probability thus acquired an additional taste for literature which was, perhaps primarily, an inheritance from her ancestors; however this may be, a keen ambition to write, coupled with a corresponding appreciation of first-class literature, began to assert itself at an early period.  Her schoolgirl efforts at composition were very favorably commented upon by her teachers, and while yet in her ninth year she wrote a story which she sent to one of the prominent New York weeklies, and although the manuscript was returned, it was accompanied by a letter of such kind encouragement and suggestion that it served to increase rather than diminish her ambition.
     At the age of eleven her uncle, the Rev. J. B. Reeve, believing that her desire for knowledge should have better opportunities for fulfillment than could be obtained in a district school, very kindly invited her to his home in Philadelphia that she might attend the institute conducted by Mrs. Fannie Jackson-Coppin.  Here for the first time brought in contact with a large number of cultured persons of her own race in society, church and school she received a new and stronger inspiration for the acquisition of. knowledge.
     Rapid progress was made during this school year.  Mrs. Coppin, who has ever since manifested much interest in her welfare, still often refers to her as a brilliant example of what a girl may do.  The following year the Rev. Dr. Reeve was called to Washington to accept the chair of theology in Howard University and Miss Silone returned to her home.  A year later Mrs. Francis L. Girard, of Newport, Rhode Island, her

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maternal aunt, a woman well known for the moral and intellectual strength of her character, and revered by many students for her benevolence and kindness, made her a proposition which she accepted; and in her fourteenth year went to Newport, and became a resident of that beautiful "City by the Sea."
     Here she at once entered the highest grade of the grammar school and maintaining her usual scholarship, the only colored pupil in the school at the time, she attracted the attention of Col. T. W. Higginson, then a citizen of Newport and a prominent member of the School Board; of the Hon. George T. Downing, through whose untiring efforts the doors of the public schools of Rhode Island were thrown open to all, with, out regard to race or color; of Thomas Coggeshall, at that time chairman of the school board; of Rev. Dr. Thayer and wife and other persons of distinction.
     The year following she entered the Rogers High School, an institution which takes first rank among the schools of the land.  Taking the four years course in three, she graduated from this school in the class of '77, delivering the valedictory address, and receiving the Norman medal for scholarship.  She had the honor to be the first colored graduate of the above mentioned school and here, as in the other institutions which she attended, gained the love, and admiration of her teachers by her demeanor and devotion to her studies.
     Her instructor in science considered her his brightest pupil, and especially commended her for her work in chemistry, a study in which she was particularly interested (although, if the statement were not paradoxical, it might be said that she was particularly interested in each study), and by doing additional laboratory work at odd hours under the guidance of her instructor, became quite an efficient and practical chemist.
     On graduating from the High School she was urged to take a university course ; all of her own purely personal desires and inclinations led her that way, but from the beginning it had been her purpose to fit herself for teaching and if possible to be—not an artisan, but an artist in the profession; therefore,

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after reflecting calmly upon the subject, taking the advice of Colonel Higginson and other stanch friends,' she decided to take a full course in the Rhode Island State Normal School.  She was already well known in the capacity of an earnest student to the principal, Professor James C. Greenough, and found him and his able corps of teachers very willing to assist her to gain what she needed in the line of preparation for her professional career.  In '79, the only colored scholar in a class of twenty or more, she graduated with honor from the Normal School.
     "While attending this institution she entered a teachers' examination in Newport with sixteen Anglo-saxon candidates and came out of it with a general average of 94 per cent.; this, while not exceptionally high, was, according to official statement, the highest average that had up to date been gained in that city in a teachers' examination.
     A regulation certificate duly signed, allowing her to teach in the public schools of Rhode Island, was granted her, the first time in the history of Rhode Island that anything of the kind had occurred.
     In the fall of '79 she began her life-work as a teacher and ten continuous years were thus spent in an enthusiastic and self-sacrificing manner.  Eight of these years were spent at Lincoln Institute, Jefferson City, Missouri, to which institution she was called by Professor Page soon after he became its official head.  He had been made acquainted with her success as a student through her former instructors.  She was at once put in charge of the subject chemistry and succeeded so well with this and other scientific branches assigned her, that eventually the entire department of natural science was turned over to her.  At the time of her resignation, she was professor of natural science in the above mentioned institution at a salary of one thousand dollars per school year and was at the time probably the only colored lady in the country holding such a position.  During this entire period her summers were invariably spent in the East, where, seizing every opportunity afforded by teachers' associations, summer schools and individual effort, she endeavored to find out the best methods of pre-

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renting the subjects which she taught.  It was not long before her work as a teacher and writer became well known to the public, and among others, it attracted the attention of such well known educators as President Mitchell, of Wilberforce, Hooker T. Washington, of Tuskegee, and the late Miss Briggs, Washington, D. C.  In '86 Mr. Washington, feeling that she was just the one needed for the work in Tuskegee, urged her to become the lady principal of that institution, but after giving the matter careful thought, she decided to remain at Lincoln Institute.  In '89 she resigned her position in this institution to become the wife of Professor W W Yates, principal of Wendel Phillips school, of Kansas City, Missouri.  Mrs. Yates carried with her the love of the students, the best wishes of President Page and the Board of Regents;. and all felt that in parting with her they were losing the services of an able and enthusiastic educator.
     Mrs. Yates has many warm friends among both the colored and white citizens of Kansas City, where she was well and favorably known in educational circles before her marriage.  Previous to this event, she had on request read a paper before the general section of the Kansas City Teachers' Institute, a highly educated body, consisting of a large number of white and colored teachers of the city public schools and outlying districts; during the first winter of her stay in Kansas City, she was invited by Superintendent James C. Greenwood to read a paper before the Greenwood Philosophical Club, a circle composed of the leading educators and literary lights of Kansas City.
     Her doors and heart are always open to young people, for whom she has an intense love and sympathy, as many students in various States will testify In the midst of a round of social household and maternal duties she finds time to pursue a regular line of study and literary work; in the latter she has the full sympathy of her genial husband.  He is very proud of his wife's attainments and she feels that his searching criticism aids her not a little in her literary work.  Since her marriage, in addition to the work before mentioned, she has

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taught for a portion of the time in Lincoln High School of Kansas City, performing the work assigned her to the entire satisfaction of all parties concerned.
     Reading French and German with ease, she has made quite a study of literature of both these languages and a few years ago wrote a series of articles upon German literature which were very well received by the press.  Russian life and literature also possess for her a peculiar fascination; possibly because of the large class of persons in Russia, which, in some respects like the Negro in America, is struggling for a more complete independence.  Gogol, Turgenief, Tolstoi, Stepniak and other Russian authors setting forth the cause of the people, find in her an appreciative reader.
     She has a great amount of race pride and fully believes in the bright future of the Negro, provided the young people for the next quarter-century are fully alive to the great responsibilities resting upon them.  For years she has been a close observer of human nature and of the great problems of the age.
     As a writer, her articles are characterized by a clear, vigorous, incisive style and have embraced a wide range of thought, from the purely literary to the more practical social, economic and scientific questions now confronting us.  These have appeared in various periodicals and weeklies, under the name "R. K. Potter," a nom de plume which she selected while yet a student and has ever since retained.  In some moods the poetic strain of her nature asserts itself, and several little gems have thus found their way into print; among these may be mentioned, "Isles of Peace," "Royal Today," and "The Zephyr."
     During the early years of her work in teaching she made quite a name as a lecturer and many of her friends wished her to give up teaching and enter the field as a lecturer, but feeling that the class room was the place where her efforts would result in the greatest good to the greatest number she did not make the change.  Her mother used to relate that before her daughter could talk plainly, when asked what she wanted

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to be when grown, the answer would invariably be "I want to be a tool teacher."
     Mrs. Yates is the mother of one child, a little daughter, and in the line of special study much of her work is done with the hope of being better prepared to wisely direct the education of this child.

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