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SIXTEENTH TIIOTTr?A ::n, 
 
 i\OBLE DEEDS 
 
 OF 
 
 AMERICAN WOMEN; 
 
 WITH 
 
 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES 
 
 OF SOME OF THE MORE PROMINENT. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 J. CLEMENT., 
 'WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS- L. H. SIGOURNEY. 
 
 FtkI; i'vnu'pUis should be set before them as patterns for iheir daiiy imiiaiion. 
 
 NEW EDITION REVISED. 
 
 NEW YOEK : 
 
 MILLER, 0ET0:N" & CO., 
 25 Pakk Row. 
 
 1857. 
 
3 260 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, m the year 1851, by 
 
 GEO. H. DEEBT & Co^ 
 In the Clerk's Office of the Northern District of New York. 
 
<e^ 
 
 JSIfoFs ^iref^ee. 
 
 This work was suggested by one of a 
 similar character, entitled "Noble Deeds 
 of Woman," an English work, which con- 
 tains but three references to American 
 Women, two of which are of but very 
 little importance. Only one article is the 
 same in both works, and that is the letter 
 written by Mrs. Sigoumey to the women 
 of Greece, in 1828, 
 in behalf of the ladies 
 of Hartford. 
 
 This failure to do 
 justice to American 
 women, may have 
 been an oversight ; be 
 that as it may, a work 
 of the kind here pre- 
 sented, seemed to be 
 needed, and we regret 
 that its preparation 
 , ^ had not been assigned 
 A, to an abler pen. Mul- 
 titudes of works have 
 been consulted, and 
 such anecdotes glean- 
 ed as it is thought will 
 
V\ PREFACE. 
 
 have a salutary influence on the mind and heart Should 
 the records of female courage and virtue herein presented 
 to the daughters of the land, encourage, even in the slight. 
 est degree, a laudable spirit of emulation, our humble labors 
 will not have been put forth in vain. 
 
 Facts are more sublime than fictions; and American 
 women have actually performed all the good, and grand, 
 and glorious deeds which the honest and judicious novelist 
 dares ascribe to the female sex; hence we have found no 
 occasion, in striving to make this work interesting, to deviate 
 from the path of historical truth. 
 
 The sources whence our materials have been derived, are 
 largely indicated in the body of the work. Possibly, how- 
 ever, we may have failed, in some instances, to indicate our 
 indebtedness to historians and biographers where such refer- 
 ence was justly demanded; suffice it to say, therefore, once 
 for all, that, although something like two hundred of these 
 priges are in our own language, we deserve but little credit 
 for originality, and would prefer to be regarded as an unpre- 
 tending compiler, rather than as an aspirant to the title of 
 author. J. C 
 
 NOTE TO THE REVISED EDITION. 
 
 The fact that eight thousand copies of this work have been pub- 
 lished in less than a year after its appearance, indicates a degree of 
 popularity which was not anticipated. In this edition we have thrown 
 out a few pages of the old matter, and substituted, in most instances, 
 fresher anecdotes ; and this revision, with the illustrations which the 
 Uberal-minded publishers have added, will, it is hoped, render the 
 work still more acceptable. J. C. 
 
COJ^TEISTTS. 
 
 InTEODUCTJ JN 13 
 
 Mother of Washington 25 
 
 Wife of Washington 33 
 
 Wife of John Adams 39 
 
 Ann H. Judson 52 
 
 A Christian Woman in the Hour of Danger 66 
 
 Humanity of Hartford Ladies 69 
 
 Mother Bailey 73 
 
 Elizabeth Heard 76 
 
 Ladies of Philadelphia in 1780 78 
 
 Wife of President Reed 80 
 
 Completion of Bunker Hill Monument 85 
 
 Lydia Darrah 89 
 
 Widow Storey .• . 93 
 
 Mrs. Hendee 95 
 
 Patriotic Women of Old Middlesex 97 
 
 The Cacique's Noble Daughter 99 
 
 Humane Spirit of a Forest Maid 101 
 
 Hannah Dustin 108 
 
 The Heroines of Bryant's Station Ill 
 
 Mrs. Daviess , 114 
 
 A Kentucky Amazon 118 
 
 Heroism at Innis Settlement , 120 
 
 Bold Exploit at Tampico 124 
 
 Dicey Langston 125 
 
 Rebecca Motte 129 
 
 Another Sacrifice for Freedom , 132 
 
Viii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 A Patriotic Donation • • • • 133 
 
 The Little Black-eyed Rebel • 134 
 
 The BensTolent Quakeress 136 
 
 A Pioneer in Sunday Schools 140 
 
 The Women of "Wyoming 142 
 
 Mary Gould 143 
 
 The Mother of President Polk 145 
 
 Trials of a Patriot 146 
 
 Intrepidity of Mrs. Israel • 164 
 
 Incident in Missionary Life 166 
 
 A Kind-hearted Chippewa 169 
 
 Humanity of a Cherokee 170 
 
 Self-sacrificing Spirit of the Missionary 171 
 
 Daring Exploit of Two Rebels 176 
 
 Elizabeth Martin 178 
 
 The Mother's Effectual Petition 180 
 
 Noteworthy Integrity 182 
 
 A Faithful Mother 184 
 
 Mrs. Spaulding 186 
 
 Wife of Colonel Thomas 188 
 
 Exemplary Piety 190 
 
 Adventure of a Patriotic Girl 1 92 
 
 Mrs. Caldwell and the Tories 195 
 
 Mother of Randolph 198 
 
 Cornelia Beekman 199 
 
 Mother of West 202 
 
 Hei'oic Endurance 204 
 
 Maternal Heroism 21 1 
 
 A Modern Dorcas 213 
 
 Sarah Hoffman 218 
 
 Heroism of Scoharie Women 221 
 
 A Steriing Patriot 223 
 
 Heroic Conduct at Monmouth 237 
 
 Courage of a Country Girl 239 
 
 The Ledyards at Fort Griswold 241 
 
 Seneca Heroines 244 
 
 Martha Bratton 246 
 
 A Poor Woman's Offering 250 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 PAQR. 
 
 Mother of Jackson 25 j 
 
 Heroine of Fort Henry 353 
 
 A Benevolent Widow 25g 
 
 Anne Fitzhugh 353 
 
 Esther Gaston 261 
 
 Remai-kable Presence of Mind 263 
 
 Wife of Governor Griswold 265 
 
 Bold Exploit of a Young Girl 266 
 
 Susanna Wright 268 
 
 Patriotism of 1770 270 
 
 Mrs. Spaulding.... 272 
 
 Mrs. Dillard 275 
 
 Phoebe Pliillips 277 
 
 Example of a Poor Widow 279 
 
 Elizabeth Estaugh 284 
 
 Kate Moore, 297 
 
 Captivity of Mrs. Rowlandson 299 
 
 Mrs. Bozarth. 303 
 
 Heroine of Steel Creek 305 
 
 Benevolence of a Colored Woman 308 
 
 Eebecca Edwards 309 
 
 The Beautiful Rebel.. i 311 
 
 Harriet B. Stewart 313 
 
 A Kind and Benevolent Woman 316 
 
 Noble Example of Pioneers 320 
 
 Mrs. Slocumb 323 
 
 Wife of Captain Richardson 330 
 
 Striking Instance of Patience , 331 
 
 Susannah Elhott 336 
 
 Anna Elhott 338 
 
 Patriotic Stratagem 340 
 
 Influence of a Faithful Teacher 341 
 
 Wife of Thomas Heyward 343 
 
 Noble Decision 345 
 
 A Tennessee Heroine 346 
 
 Mrs. M'Kay 352 
 
 Heroic Conduct of a Daughter 354 
 
 Heroic Decision. , 356 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB- 
 
 Daughter of Aaron Burr 35& 
 
 li'emale Intrepidity 361 
 
 Wife of Richard Shubrick 363 
 
 Retort of Mrs. Ashe 365 
 
 Wife of a Drunkard.... 366 
 
 Mother of Dr. Dwight 370 
 
 Happy Results of Maternal Fidelity 373 
 
 Mrs. Scott 375 
 
 Success of Boldness •••• 378 
 
 Mary Knight 380 
 
 Wife of William Gray 381 
 
 Mrs. Huntington 383 
 
 Mrs. Biddle 385 
 
 Kindness of Convicts 387 
 
 Margaret Prior 388 
 
 Noble Acts of Kindness 395 
 
 Wife of Dr. Ramsay 398 
 
 Margaret Schuyler 400 
 
 Noble Treatment of Enemies 402 
 
 Humanity Rewarded 403 
 
 Margaret Winthrop 404, 
 
 A Pioneer Settler's Adventure 408 
 
 Mrs, McKenney 410 
 
 The Fisherman's Heroic Wife 416 
 
 Mrs. James K. Polk 418 
 
 Widow Jenkins 421 
 
 Faithful Little Girl 423 
 
 Hospitality of California Women 424 
 
 Sarah Lanman Smith 425 
 
 Brother saved by his Sister 429 
 
 Mrs. Borden 431 
 
 Margaret Corbin 432 
 
 Mrs. Channing 433 
 
 Commendable Courage ...,t 434 
 
 Heroine of Shell's Bush 435 
 
 Father Taylor's Widowed Friend 437 
 
 Revolutionary Mother. 440 
 
 Successful Daring „ 443 
 
r o N 'I I-: N TS. XI 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Worthy Exampie ol Forgivoaess .^ 444 
 
 Crookshauks saved by a Female » 445 
 
 Patriotic Artist 446 
 
 Mohawk Women 448 
 
 emale in the Revolutionary Army 450 
 
 lizabeth Brant 459 
 
 rief Anecdotes ,. 465. 
 
 ias D. L. Dix 474 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The advantages of Biography are obvious and great. 
 To the weight of precept, it adds the force and efficacy of 
 example. It presents correct and beautiful models, and 
 awakens the impulse to imitate what we admire. Other 
 sciences strengthen the intellect, this influences and amends 
 the heart. Other subjects interest the imagination, this 
 modifies conduct and character. By the recorded actions 
 of the great and good, we regulate our own course, and 
 steer, star-guided, over life*o trackless ocean. 
 
 In remote ages, the department of Female Biography 
 was almost a void. Here and there on the pages of the 
 Sacred Volume, a Hneament, or a form, is sketched with 
 graphic power, either as a warning, or bright with the 
 hues of heaven. Yet uninspired history, though she con- 
 tinued to utter " her dark sayings upon the harp," was 
 wont to relapse into silence at the name of woman. Clas- 
 sic antiquity scarcely presents aught that might be cited 
 as a sustained example. In the annals of ancient Greece, 
 the wife of one of its philosophers has obtained a place, 
 but only through the varied trials, by which she contri- 
 buted to perfect his patience. Rome but slightly lifts the 
 
XIV INTll O JJU CT I ') N. 
 
 household veil from the mother of tlie Gracchi, as she cx- 
 ultingly exhibits her heart's jewels. Cleopatra, with hjr 
 royal barge, casts a dazzling gleam over the Cydnus, but 
 her fame is like the poison of the reptile that destroyed 
 her. BoacUcea rushes for a moment in her rude chariot 
 over the battle field, but the fasces and the chains of 
 Rome close the scene. 
 
 Modern Paganism disclosed a still deeper abyss of de- 
 gradation for woman. The aboriginal lord of the American 
 forests lays the burden on the shoulder of his weaker com- 
 panion, and stalks on in unbowed majesty, with his quiver 
 and his tomahawk. Beneath the sultry skies of Africa^ 
 she crouches to drink the poison water before her judges, 
 having no better test of her innocence than the deliverer, 
 Death. In India, we see her plunging into the Ganges 
 her female infants, that they may escape her lot of misery, 
 or wrapped in the flames of the burning pile, turn into 
 ashes with the corpse of her husband. Under the sway 
 of the Moslem, her highest condition is a hfe-long incarce- 
 ration, her best treatment, that of a gilded toy — a soulless 
 slave. Throughout the whole heathen world, woman may 
 be characterized, as Humanity, in Central Asia has been, 
 by an elegant French writer, as " always remaining anony- 
 mous, — indiflferent to herself, — not believing in her liberty, 
 having none, — and leaving no trace of her passage upon 
 earth." 
 
 Christianity has- changed the scene. Wherever her pure 
 and pitying spirit prevails, the sway of brute force is soft- 
 ened, and the "weaker vessel" upheld. Bearing in her 
 hand the blessed Gospel, "a light to Hghten the Gentiles, 
 and the glory of the people Israel," she adds to the litera- 
 ture of the world a new volume, the History of Woman. 
 
I N T li O D U C T 1 O N. 1% \' 
 
 She spreads a page, for wliich the long, slow ages had 
 neither looked, nor inquired, — neither waited for, nor ima- 
 gined, the page of female biography. 
 
 So hberal have been our own immediate times in sup- 
 plying fitting materials, that an extensive and valuable li- 
 brary might readily be selected in this department alone. 
 Since knowledge has shed her baptism upon the head of 
 woman, her legitimate sphere of duty has become exten- 
 ded, and enriched by incident. We see her not only brought 
 forward as a teacher, but entering unrebuked the fields of 
 science and literature ; we see her amid the hardships of 
 colonial life, displaying a martyr's courage, or ascending the 
 deck of the mission ship to take her part in "perils among 
 the heathen." 
 
 The venerabJe moralist of Barley Wood, who so perse- 
 veringly encouraged her sex to reflect, to discriminate, to 
 choose the good and refuse the evil, who, after attaining 
 the age of sixty years, presented them with eleven new and 
 instructive volumes, has not long laid down her pen, for the 
 rest and reward of the righteous. That high souled apostle 
 of erring, sufi'ering humanity, to whose dauntless benevo- 
 lence crowned heads did honor, whose melodious voice I 
 almost fancy that I again hear, as in the plain garb of 
 her order, she stood as a tutelary being among the con- 
 victs at Newgate, — she has but recently arisen to that 
 congenial society of the just made perfect, who rejoice over 
 " one sinner that repenteth." 
 
 And the harp of that tuneful one, so recently exchanged 
 for a purer harmony, still breathes upon our hearts the 
 echoes of her varied lay, as when touched by Her hand it 
 warbled — 
 
XVI INTRODUCTTON. 
 
 "Fame hath a voice, whose thiilling tone. 
 Can bid the life pulse beat, 
 As when a trumpet's note hath blown, 
 
 "Warning the hosts to meet; 
 But ah ! let mine, a woman's breast, 
 With words of home-bom love be bless'd." 
 
 She, too, who sleeps beneath the hopia-tree m Burmah, 
 whose courage and constancy no hero has transcended, 
 how rapidly has she been followed in the same self deny- 
 ing path, by others who " counted not their lives dear 
 unto them," if they might bear to the perishing heathen 
 the name and love of a Redeemer. 
 
 And one still hves, the wonderful Scandinavian maiden, 
 whose melody now holds our own land in enchantment, 
 and who exhibits, on a scale hitherto unknown in the 
 world's history, rare endowments, boundless hberality, and 
 deep humihty ; God's grace held in subser^aence to the 
 good of her fellow creatures. Through the power of song, 
 which, as the compeer of the nightingale, she possesses, 
 and with a singular freedom from vanity and selfishness, 
 she charms and elevates, while with the harvest of her 
 toUs she feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, comforts the 
 desolate, aids the hallowed temple to uplift its spire, and 
 the school to spread its brooding wing over the children 
 of future generations. 
 
 One there hves. who doth inherit 
 Angel gifts with angel spirit. 
 Bidding streams of gladness flow 
 Thi'ough the realms of want and woe, 
 'Mid lone age and misery's lot. 
 Kindling pleasures long forgot. 
 Seeking minds oppress'd with night, 
 And on darkness shedding light ; 
 She the seraph's speech doth know. 
 She hath leam'd their deeds below 
 
INTKODUOTION. XVU 
 
 So, when o'er this misty strand. 
 She sliall clasp their waiting hand. 
 They will fold her to their breast, 
 More a sister than a guest. 
 
 If all true greatness should be estimated by its tenden- 
 cies, and by the good it performs, it is pecuKarly desirable 
 that woman's claims to distinction should be thus judged 
 and awarded. In this young western world, especially in 
 JSTew England, her agency has been admitted, and her ca- 
 pacity tested, of mingling a healthful leaven with the elements 
 of a nation's character. Here, her presence has been ac- 
 knowledged, and her aid faithfully rendered, from the be- 
 ginning. There is a beautiful tradition, that the first foot 
 which pressed the snow clad rock of Plymouth was that of 
 Mary Chilton, a fair young maiden, and that the last sur- 
 vivor of those heroic pioneers was Mary Allerton, who lived 
 to see the planting of twelve out of the thirteen colonies, 
 which formed the nucleus of these United States. 
 
 In the May Flower, eighteen wives accompanied their 
 husbands to a waste land and uninhabited, save by the 
 wily and vengeful savage. On the unfloored hut, she who 
 had been nurtured amid the rich carpets and curtains of 
 the mother land, rocked her new born babe, and com- 
 plained not. She, who in the home of her youth had ar- 
 ranged the gorgeous shades of embroidery, or, perchance, 
 had compounded the rich venison pasty as her share in the 
 housekeeping, now pounded the coarse Indian corn for her 
 children's bread, and bade them ask God's blessing, ere 
 they took their scanty portion. When the snows sifted 
 through their miserable roof-trees upon her little ones, she 
 gathered them closer to her bosom ; she taught them the 
 Bible, and the catechism, and the holy hymn, though the 
 
 war-whoop of the Indian rang through the wild. Amid 
 2 
 
XVIU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the untold hardships of colonial life, she infused new strength 
 into her husband by her firmness, and solaced his weary 
 hours by her love. She was to him, 
 
 "An undergoing spirit, to bear up 
 
 Against wliate'er ensued." 
 
 During the struggle of our Revolution, the privations sus- 
 tained, and the efforts made by women, were neither few 
 nor of short duration. Many of them are delineated in the 
 present volume, and in other interesting ones of the same 
 class, which have found favor with the public. 
 
 Yet inn«umerable instances of faithful toil, and patient 
 endurance, must have been covered with oblivion. In how 
 many a lone home, whence the father was long sundered 
 by a soldier's destiny, did the Mother labor to perform to 
 their little ones both his duties and her own, having no 
 witness of the extent of her heavy burdens, and sleepless 
 anxieties, save the Hearer of Prayer. 
 
 A good and hoary headed man, who had passed the 
 limits of fourscore, once said to me, " my father was in the 
 army during the whole eight years of the Revolutionaiy 
 war, at first as a common soldier, afterwards as an officer. 
 My mother had the sole charge of us, four little ones. Our 
 house was a poor one, and far from neighbors. I have 
 a keen remembrance of the terrible cold of some of these 
 winters. The snow lay so deep and long, that it was diffi- 
 cult to cut or draw fuel from the woods, and to get our 
 corn to mill, vrhen we had any. My mother was the pos- 
 sessor of a coffee mill. In that she ground wheats and 
 made coarse bread, which we ate, and were thankful. It 
 was not always that we could be allowed as much, even 
 of this, as our keen appetites craved. Many is the time 
 that we have gone to bed, with only a diiuk of water for 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 our supper, iii which a httle molasses had been mingled. 
 We patiently received it, for we knew our mother did as 
 well for us as she could, and hoped to have something 
 better in the morning. She was never heard to repine; 
 and young as we were, we tried to make her loving spirit 
 and heavenly trust, our example. 
 
 " When my father was permitted to come home, his stay 
 was short, and he had not much to leave us, for the pay 
 of those who achieved our liberties was slight, and irregu- 
 larly rendered. Yet when he went, my mother ever bade 
 him farewell with a cheerful face, and not to be anxious 
 about his children, for she would watch over them night 
 and day, and God would take care of the families of 
 those who went forth to defend the righteous cause of 
 their country. Sometimes we wondered that she did not 
 mention the cold weather, or our short meals, or her hard 
 work, that we little ones might be clothed, and fed, and 
 taught. But she would not weaken his hands, or sadden 
 his heart, for she said a soldier's lot was harder than all. 
 We saw that she never complained, but always kept in her 
 heart a sweet hope, like a well of hving water. Every 
 night ere we slept, and every morning when we arose, we 
 lifted our little hands for God's blessing on our absent fa- 
 ther, and our endangered country." 
 
 How deeply the prayers from such solitary homes, and 
 faithful hearts, • were mingled with the infant liberties of 
 our dear native land, we may not know until we enter 
 where we see no more " through a glass darkly, but face 
 to face." 
 
 Incidents repeatedly occurred during this contest of eight 
 veai's, between the feeble colonies and the strong mother 
 
XX ^ IjSTTKODUCTION. 
 
 land, of a courage that ancient Sparta would have ap- 
 plauded. 
 
 In a thinly settled part of Virginia, the quiet of the Sab- 
 bath eve was once broken by the loud, hurried roll of the 
 drum. Volunteers were invoked to go forth and prevent 
 the British troops, under the pitiless Tarleton, from forcing 
 their way through an important mountain pass. In an old 
 fort resided a family, all of whose elder sons were absent 
 with our army, which at the North opposed the foe. The 
 father lay enfeebled and sick. Around his bedside the 
 Mother called their three sons, of the ages of thirteen, fif- 
 teen, and seventeen. 
 
 " Go forth, children," said she, " to the defence of your 
 native clime. Go, each and aU of you. I spare not my 
 youngest, my fair-haired boy, the light of my decUning 
 years. 
 
 " Go forth, my sons. Repel the foot of the invader, or 
 see my face no more." 
 
 It has been recorded in the annals of other cHmes, as 
 well as our own, that Woman, under the pressure of un- 
 usual circumstances, has- revealed unwonted and unexpected 
 energies. It is fitting that she sliould prove herself equal 
 to every emergency, nor shrink from any duty that dangers 
 or reverses may impose. 
 
 Still, her best happiness and true glory are doubtless 
 found in her own peculiar sphere. Rescued, as she has 
 been, from long darkness, by the precepts of the religion of 
 Jesus, brought forth into the broad sunlight of knowledge 
 and responsibility, she is naturally anxious to know how to 
 discharge her debt to the age, and to her own land. Her 
 patriotism is, to labor in the sanctuary of home, and m every 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXi 
 
 allotted department of education, to form and train a race 
 that shall bless their country, and serve their God. 
 
 There has been sometimes claimed for her, under tk. 
 name of "rights,'" a wider participation in the pursuits, ex- 
 posures, and honors appertaining to men. Were these some- 
 what indefinite claims conceded, would the change promote 
 her welfare? Would she be a gainer by any added powder 
 or sounding title, which should require the sacrifice of that 
 delicacy which is the life-blood of her sex? 
 
 Would it be better for man to have no exercise for those 
 energies, which the state of a gentle, trustful being calls 
 forth; those protecting energies which reveal his peculiar 
 strength, and hken him to a god-like nature? Would it 
 add either to her attractions or his happiness, to confront 
 her in the arena of political strife, or enable her to bear her part 
 in fierce collision with the bold and unprincipled ? Might 
 it not endanger or obliterate that enthusiasm of love, which 
 she so much prizes, to meet the tutelary spirit of his home 
 delights, on the steep unsheltered heights of ambition, as a 
 competitor or a rival? 
 
 Would it be as well for the rising generation, who are 
 given into the arms of Woman for their earliest guidance, 
 that the ardor of her nature should be drawn into different 
 and contradictory channels ? When a traveler in those lands 
 w^here she goes forth to manual toil in the fields, I have 
 mourned to see her neglected little ones, deprived of mater- 
 ial care, unsoftened by the blandishments of its tender- 
 ness, growing up like animals, groveling, unimpressible, un- 
 conscientious. Whatever detaches her thoughts or divides 
 her heart from home duties and affections, is especially a 
 loss to the young plants that depend on her nurture and 
 supervision. 
 
XXll INTRODUCTION". 
 
 If, therefore, the proposed change should proHt neither 
 man, woman, nor the rising race, how can it benefit the 
 world at large? Is it not the province of true wisdom to 
 select such measures as promote the greatest good of the 
 greatest number? 
 
 A moralist has well said, that "in contentions for power, 
 both the philosophy and poetry of life are dropped and trod- 
 den down." A still heavier loss would accrue to domestic 
 happiness, and the interests of well balanced society, should 
 the innate delicacy and prerogative of woman, as woman, 
 be sacrificed or transmuted. 
 
 "I have given her as a help-meet," said the Voice that 
 cannot err, when it spake unto Adam " in the cool of the 
 day," amid the trees of Paradise. Not as a slave, a clog, 
 a toy, a wrestler, a prize-fighter, a ruler. No. A helper, 
 such as was meet for man to desire, and for her to become. 
 
 If the unerring Creator has assigned different spheres 
 of action to the sexes, it is to be presumed that some adap- 
 tation exists to their respective sphere, that there is work 
 enough in each to employ them, and that the faithful per- 
 formance of that work will be for the welfare of both. If He 
 hath constituted one as the priestess of the " inner temple," 
 committing to her charge its veiled shrine and sacred har- 
 monies, why should she covet to rage amid the warfare at 
 its gates, or to ride on the whirlwind that may rock its 
 turrets? Rushing, uncalled, to the strife, or the tumult, 
 or the conflict, will there not linger in h'er heart the up- 
 draiding question, "with whom didst thou leave thy few 
 sheep in the wilderness?" Why need she be again tempted 
 by pride, or curiosity, or glozing words, to forfeit her own 
 Eden? 
 
 The true nobility of Woman is to keep her own sphere. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI 1 1 
 
 and adorn it, not as the comet, daunting and perplexing 
 other systems, but like the star, which is the first to light 
 the day and the last to leave it. If she win not the lauiel 
 of the conqueror and the blood-shedder, her noble deeds may 
 leave " footprints on the sands of time," and her good works, 
 " such as become those that profess godhness," find record 
 in the Book of Life. 
 
 Sisters, are not our rights sufficiently comprehensive, the 
 sanctuary of home, the throne of the heart, the moulding 
 of the whole mass of mind, in its first formation ? Have 
 we not power enough in all realms of sorrow and suffering, 
 over all forms of want and ignorance, amid all ministries 
 of love, from the cradle-dream to the sealing of the se- 
 pulchre ? 
 
 Let us be content and faithful, ^ye, more, — grateful and 
 joyful, — making this brief life a hymn of praise, until ad- 
 mitted to that chctr which knows no discord, and where 
 melody is eternal. 
 
 L. HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY, 
 
 Hartford, Conn.. 
 
THE MOTHEE OF WASHESrGTO:^ 
 
 As the " mother " of our nation's " chief," it seems 
 appropriate that Mary Washington should stand at 
 the head of American females whose deeds are herein 
 recorded. Her life was one unbroken series of praise- 
 worthy actions — a drama of many scenes, none blood- 
 chilling, none tragic, but all noble, all inspiring, and 
 many even magnanimous. She was uniformly so 
 gentle, so amiable, so dignified, that it is difficult to ^x 
 the eye on any one act more strikingly grand than the 
 rest. Stretching the eye along a series of mountain 
 peaks, all, seemingly, of the same height, a solitary 
 
26 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 one cannot be singled out and called more sublime 
 than the otliers. 
 
 It is impossible to contemplate any one trait of her 
 character without admiration. In republican simpli- 
 city, as her life will show, she was a model ; and her 
 piety was of such an exalted nature that the daughters 
 of the land might make it their study. Though proud 
 of her son, as we may suppose she must have been, 
 she was sensible enough not to be betrayed into weak- 
 ness and folly on that account. The honors that clus- 
 tered around her name as associated with his, only 
 humbled her and made her apparently more devout. 
 She never forgot that she was a Christian mother, and 
 tliat her son, herself, and, in perilous times especially, 
 her country, needed her prayers. She was wholly 
 destitute of aristocratic feelings, which are degrading 
 to human beings ; and never believed that sounding 
 titles and high honors could confer lasting distinc- 
 tions, without moral worth. The greatness which 
 Byron, with so much justness and beauty, ascribes 
 to Washington, was one portion of the inestimable 
 riches which the son inherited from the mother : 
 
 " Where may the weary eye repose, 
 
 When gazing on the great, 
 Where neither guilty glory glows, 
 
 l^or despicable state ? 
 Yes, one — the first — the last — the best — 
 The Cincinnatus of the West, 
 
 Whom envy dared not hate — 
 Bequeathed the name of Washington, 
 To make men blush there was but one." 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 27 
 
 Moulding, as she did, to a large extent, the cha- 
 racter of the great Hero, Statesman and Sage of the 
 Western World ; instilling into his young heart the 
 virtues that warmed her own, and fitting him to be- 
 come the man of unbending integrity and heroic 
 courage, and the father of a great and expanding re- 
 public, she may well claim the veneration, not of the 
 lovers of freedom merely, but of all who can appre- 
 ciate moral beauty and thereby estimate the true 
 wealth of woman's heart. A few data and incidents 
 of such a person's life should be treasured in every 
 American mind. 
 
 The maiden name of Mrs. Washington was Mary 
 Bell. She was born in the Colony of Virginia, which 
 is fertile in great names, towards the close of the year 
 1706. She became the second wife of Mr. Augustine 
 Washington, a planter of the " Old Dominion," on the 
 sixth of March, 1730. He was at that time a resident 
 of Westmoreland county. There, two years after this 
 union, George, their oldest child, was born. While 
 the " father of his country" was an infiant, the pa- 
 rents removed to Stafford county, on the Rappahannoc 
 river, opposite Fredericksburg. 
 
 Mrs. Washington had five more children, and lost 
 the youngest in its infancy. Soon after this affliction, 
 she was visited, in 1743, with a greater — the death of 
 her husband. Thus, at the age of thirty-seven, Mrs. 
 Washington became a widow, with five small children. 
 Fortunately, her husband left a valuable property for 
 their maintenance. It was mostly in land, and each 
 son inherited a plantation. The one daughter was also 
 
25 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 suitably provided for. "It was thus," writes Mr 
 Sparks, " that Augustine Washington, although sud- 
 denly cut off in the vigor of manhood, left all his chil- 
 dren in a state of comparative independence. Confi- 
 ding in the prudence of the mother, he directed that 
 the proceeds of all the property of her children should 
 be at her disposal, till they should respectively come 
 of age." 
 
 The same writer adds that, " this weighty charge of 
 five young children, the eldest of whom was eleven 
 years old, the superintendence of their education, and 
 the management of complicated affairs, demanded no 
 common share of resolution, resource of mind, and 
 strength of character. In these important duties Mrs. 
 Washington acquitted herself with fidelity to her trust, 
 and with entire success. Her good sense, assiduity, 
 tenderness and vigilance, overcame every obstacle ; 
 and, as the richest reward of a mother's solicitude and 
 toil, she had the happiness of seeing all her children 
 come forward with a fair promise into life, filling the 
 sphere allotted to them in a manner equally honorable 
 to themselves, and to the parent who had been the only 
 guide of their principles, conduct and habits. She 
 lived to witness the noble career of her eldest son, till, 
 by his own rare merits, he was raised to the head of 
 a nation, and applauded and revered by the whole 
 world." 
 
 Two years after the death of his father, George 
 Washington obtained a midshipman's warrant, and 
 had not his mother opposed the plan, he would have 
 entered the naval service, been removed from her in- 
 
OF AMEKICAN WOMEN. 9fB 
 
 flucnce, acted a different part on the theatre of life, 
 and possibly changed the subsequent aspect of Ameri- 
 can affairs. 
 
 Just before Washington's departure to the north, to 
 assume the command of the American army, he per- 
 suaded his mother to leave her country residence, and 
 assisted in effecting ber removal to Fredericksburg. 
 There she took up a permanent abode, and there died 
 of a lingering and painful disease, a cancer in the 
 breast, on the twenty-fifth of August, 1789. 
 
 A few of the many lovely traits of Mrs. Washing- 
 ton's character, are happily exhibited in two or three 
 incidents in her long, but not remarkably eventful life. 
 
 She who looked to God in hours of darkness for 
 light, in her country's peril, for Divine succor, was 
 equally as ready to acknowledge the hand and to see 
 the smiles of the " God of battles" in the victories that 
 crowned our arms ; hence, when she was informed of 
 the surrender of Comwallis, her heart instantly filled 
 with gratitude, and raising her hands, with reverence 
 and pious fervor, she exclaimed : " Thank God ! war 
 will now be ended, and peace, independence and hap- 
 piness bless our country !" 
 
 When she received the news of her son's successful 
 passage of the Delaware — December 7th, 1776 — with 
 much self-possession she expressed her joy that the 
 prospects of the country were brightening ; but when 
 she came to those portions of the dispatches which 
 were panegyrical of her son, she modestly and coolly 
 observed to the bearers of the good tidings, that 
 " George appeared to have deserved well of his coun- 
 
so NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 try for such signal services. But, my good sirs," slie 
 added, " here is too much flattery ! — Still, George will 
 not forget the lessons Ih(we taught him — he will not 
 forget himself though he is the subject of so much 
 praise." 
 
 In like manner, when, on the return of the combined 
 armies from Yorktown, Washington visited her at 
 Fredericksburg, she inquired after his health and 
 talked long and with much warmth of feeling of the 
 scenes of former years, of early and mutual friends, of 
 all, in short, that the past hallows ; but to the theme 
 of the ransomed millions of the land, the theme that 
 for three quarters of a century has, in all lands, 
 prompted the highest flights of eloquence, and awa- 
 kened the noblest strains of song, to the deathless 
 fame of her son, she made not the slightest allusion. 
 
 In the fall of 1784, just before returning to his native 
 land. General Lafayette went to Fredericksburg, " to 
 pay his parting respects" to Mrs. Washington. " Con- 
 ducted by one of her grandsons, he approached the 
 house, when the young gentleman observed : ' There, 
 sir, is my grandmother !' Lafayette beheld — work 
 ing in the garden, clad in domestic-made clothes, and 
 her gray head covered with a plain straw hat — the 
 mother of ' his hero, his friend and a country's pre- 
 server ! ' The lady saluted him kindly, observing : 
 ' Ah, Marquis ! you see an old woman ; but come, I 
 can make you welcome to my poor dwelling without 
 the parade of changing my dress.' " During the inter- 
 view, Lafayette, referring to her son, could not with- 
 hold his encomiums, which drew from the mother this 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 81 
 
 beautifully simple remark : "I am not surprised at 
 what George has done, for he was always a good 
 boy." 
 
 The remains of Mrs. Washington were interred at 
 Fredericksburg. On the seventh of May, 1833, the 
 corner-stone of a monument to her memory was laid 
 under the direction of a Committee who represented 
 the citizens of Yirginia. General Jackson, then Pre- 
 sident of the United States, very appropriately took 
 the leading and most honorable part in the ceremony. 
 With the following extracts from the closing part of 
 his chaste and elegant Address, our humble sketch 
 may fittingly close : 
 
 " In tracing the few recollections which can be ga- 
 thered, of her principles and conduct, it is impossible 
 to avoid the conviction, that these were closely inter- 
 woven with the destiny of her son. The great points 
 of his charact^ are before the world. He who runs 
 may read them in his whole career, as a citizen, a sol- 
 dier, a magistrate. He possessed unerring judgment, 
 if that term can be applied to human nature ; great 
 probity of purpose, high moral principles, perfect self- 
 possession, untiring application, and an inquiring 
 mind, seeking information from every quarter, and 
 arriving at its conclusions with a full knowledge of the 
 subject ; and he added to these an inflexibility of reso- 
 lution, which nothing could change but a conviction 
 of error. Look back at the life and conduct of his 
 mother, and at her domestic government, as they 
 have this day been delineated by the Chairman of 
 the Monumental Committee, and as they were known 
 
g^ NOEI*E DEEDS 
 
 to her contemporaries, and have been described by 
 them, and they will be fonnd admirably adapted to 
 form and develop, the elements of such a character 
 The power of greatness was there ; but had it not been 
 guided and directed by maternal solicitude and judg- 
 ment, its possessor, instead of presenting to the world 
 examples of virtue, patriotism and wisdom, which 
 will be precious in all succeeding ages, might have 
 added to the number of those master-spirits, whose 
 fame rests upon the faculties they have abused, and 
 
 the injuries they have committed 
 
 " Fellow citizens, at your request, and in your name, 
 I now deposit this plate in the spot destined for it ; 
 and when the American pilgrim shall, in after ages, 
 come up to this high and holy place, and lay his hand 
 upon this sacred column, may he recall the virtues of 
 her who sleeps beneath, and depart with his affections 
 purified, and his piety strengthened, while he invokes 
 blessings upon the Mother of Washington." 
 
THE WIFE OP WASHDSrGTOK 
 
 A woman's noblest station is retreat : 
 Her fairest virtues fly from public sight; 
 Domestic worth — that shuns too strong a light. 
 
 Lord Lyttleton. 
 
 The drying up a single tear has more 
 
 Of honest fame tlian shedding seas of gore. 
 
 Byron. 
 
 Woman may possess an eqnal share of the elements 
 of greatness with man, but she has not an equal oppor- 
 tunity to display them in such a manner as to call forth 
 the admiration and applause of the world. She was 
 not made to pour the tide of eloquence in the Senate 
 chamber, or lead on to victory the brave and heroic 
 spirits of the land. Her course leads mainly through 
 the quiet valley of domestic retirement, where the 
 stream can rarely leap from dizzy heights with a thun- 
 dering plunge, whose echoes shall go booming on to fill 
 the ear of coming generations : her movements and 
 influence are more like those of springs, which, flowing 
 noiselessly and unseen, are widely scattered, and every 
 where difluse incalculable blessings. 
 
 The wife of Washington could not be the hero of a 
 seven-years' war, or the chief magistrate of a republic ; 
 but, as the companion of such a man, she could shine, 
 
34 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 in her own proper sphere, with a lustre as mild, as 
 steady, as serene, as his. And thus she did. Prompt 
 to obey the calls of duty, when the voice of humanity 
 beckoned her to the camp, she hastened away, at the 
 sacrifice of ease and comfort, to relieve the wants of 
 the suffering ; and when forced to leave her " paradise" 
 at Mount Yernon, to j)reside, as the matron of the na- 
 tion, at the President's house, she did it with a dignity 
 and propriety perhaps never equalled, certainly never 
 excelled. But let us not anticipate. 
 
 Martha Dandridge was born in ISTew Kent county, 
 Virginia, in May, 1732. She was endowed with good 
 sense, a strong mind, sound ideas of feminine pro- 
 prieties, and correct views of woman's practical duties : 
 and these had to answer measurably as a substitute for 
 the discipline of female seminaries, which were rare in 
 the " Old Dominion," and in the Colonies generally, 
 in her younger days. The advantages to be derived 
 from domestic instruction, she enjoyed, and those 
 only. They, however, were cut off at the age of seven- 
 teen, by her union in mamage with Colonel Daniel P. 
 Custis, a gentleman of many excellent parts. They 
 settled on his plantation in her native county. Beau- 
 tiful, lovely in disposition, and fascinating in manners, 
 the young wife was warmly admired by her neighbors 
 and all with whom she came in contact ; and her resi- 
 dence, known as the " White House^'' was the centre 
 of strong attractions, and the scene of much genuine 
 or — which is the same thing — Virginian^ hospitality. 
 Colonel Custis became the father of three children, and 
 then died. Previous to this solemn event, however. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 35 
 
 tlic White House had been veiled in weeds for the loss 
 of his oldest child. 
 
 With two small children, a son and daughter, Mrs. 
 Custis early found herself a widow, with the disposi- 
 tion and management of all pecuniary interests left by 
 her confiding husband, at her control. As sole execu- 
 trix, it is said that she " managed the extensive 
 landed and pecuniary concerns of the estate with sur- 
 prising ability, making loans on mortgages, of money, 
 and through her stewards and agents, conducting the 
 sales or exportation of the crops to the best possible 
 advantage." 
 
 But from the cares of an extensive estate she was 
 shortly relieved. On the sixth of January, 1759, she 
 gave her hand, with upwards of a hundred thousand 
 dollars, to Colonel George Washington, another planter 
 of her native Colony. At the same time, she relin- 
 quished into his hands the guardianship of her chil- 
 dren — the son six, and the daughter four years old — 
 together with the care of their property. From the 
 White House, Mrs. Washington now removed to 
 Mount Yernon, which remained her home till her 
 death, and became the final resting place of her 
 remains. 
 
 In her new home, as in the White House, she super- 
 intended the affairs of the household, exercising con- 
 tinual control over all culinary matters ; carefully 
 educating her offspring, and aiming to rear them up 
 for usefulness. These duties she discharged with the 
 utmost assiduity and faithfulness, in spite of the many 
 social obligations which a woman in her position mufet 
 
S6 ' NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 necessarily encounter.* 'Not did the demands of 
 courtesy and of her family debar her from habitual and 
 systematic charities, dispensed in her neighborhood, or 
 from those most important of all daily duties, the calls 
 of the " closet." In the language of Miss Conkling, 
 in her Memoir : " It is recorded of this devout Chris- 
 tian, that never during her life, whether in prosperity 
 or in adversity, did she omit that daily self-communion 
 and self-examination, and those private devotional 
 exercises, which would best prepare her for the self- 
 control and self-denial by which she was, for more than 
 half a century, so eminently distinguished. It was her 
 habit to retire to her own aj)artment every morning 
 after breakfast, there to devote an hour to solitary 
 prayer and meditation." 
 
 in 17Y0, she lost a child of many prayers, of bright 
 hopes, and of much promise, her blooming daughter. 
 She looked upon this affliction as a visitation from 
 £[im who doeth all things well, and bore it with 
 becoming resignation, which the Christian only is pre- 
 pared to do. 
 
 During the Eevolution, Mrs. "Washington was ac- 
 customed to pass the winters with her husband at the 
 head quarters of the army and the summers at Mount 
 Yemon ; and it was in the camp that she shone with 
 the lustre of the true woman. " She was at Yalley 
 
 * We have the authority of Mr. Sparks for asserting that while Wash- 
 ington's pursuits -were those of a retired planter, he seldom passed a day 
 when at home without the company of friends or strangers, frequently 
 persons of great celebrity, and demanding much attentioii from the lady 
 of the house. 
 
OF AMEKICAJT WOMEN. 37 
 
 Forge in that dreadful winter of 1777-8, her presence 
 and submission to privation strengthening the fortitude 
 of those who might have complained, and giving hope 
 and confidence to the desponding. She soothed the 
 distresses of many sufferers, seeking out the poor and 
 afflicted with benevolent kindness, extending relief 
 wherever it was in her power, and with graceful de- 
 portment presiding in the Chief's humble dwelling.""^ 
 
 In 1781, she lost her last surviving child, John 
 Custis, aged twenty seven. Her widowed daughter- 
 in-law and the four children, she took to her own 
 home, and thenceforward they were the objects of her 
 imtiring solicitude. 
 
 The life of Mrs. Washington, after her husband 
 took the Presidential chair, was marked by no striking 
 incidents, and affords scanty material of the nature 
 marked out for this work. During the eight years 
 that he was Chief Magistrate, she presided in his 
 mansion with the same unaffected ease, equanimity 
 and dignified simplicity that had marked her pre- 
 vious course in more retired circles. Visitors were 
 received on all days except the Sabbath^ and, irre- 
 spective of rank, shared in her courtesies and hospi- 
 talities. A portion of each summer, at that period, 
 was passed in the quiet and seclusion of Momit 
 Yernon, she rarely, if ever, accompanying her hus- 
 band on his tours through the land. She expressed 
 regret when he was chosen President, because she 
 
 * Mrs. Washington, in waiting to Mrs. Warren, says, " The General *s 
 apartment is very small; he has had a log cabin built to dine in, which 
 has made our quarters more tolerable than at first." 
 
38 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 preferred " to grow old" with him " in solitude and 
 tranquillity ;" hence it is not surprising that she found 
 a luxury in retiring for a season from the scenes of 
 public life, and in attending to the education of her 
 grand-children and to other self-imposed tasks and 
 hnportant duties, in the performance of which she 
 could bless her friends and honor God. 
 
 After the death of her illustrious companion, which 
 occurred in December, 1799, she remaiued at Mount 
 Yernon ; where she spent seventeen months mourn- 
 ing her loss ; receiving the visits of the great from 
 all parts of our land, and from various parts of the 
 earth ; attending, as heretofore, to her domestic con- 
 cerns; perfecting in the Christian graces, and ripen- 
 ing for the joys of a holier state of being. On the 
 twenty-second of May, 1801, she who, while on earth, 
 could be placed in no station which she did not 
 dignify and honor, was welcomed to the glories of 
 another world. 
 
THE WIFE OF JOHUST ADAMS, 
 
 The motlier in her office holds the key 
 
 Of the soul; and she it is who stamps the coin 
 
 Of character, and makes the being who would be a savage. 
 
 But for her gentle cares, a Christian man. 
 
 we will walk this world. 
 
 Yoked in all exercise of noble ainu 
 
 Old Play 
 
 Tennyson, 
 
 Abigail Smith was a daughter of the Eev. William 
 Smith, a Congregational minister of Weymouth, Mas- 
 sachusetts, where she was born on the eleventh of 
 November, 1744, O. S. " It was fashionable to ridi- 
 cule female learning," in her day ; and she says of 
 herself in one of her letters, " I was never sent to any 
 school." She adds, " I was always sick. Female edu- 
 cation, in the best families, went no further than wri- 
 ting and arithmetic." But notwithstanding her edu- 
 cational disadvantages, she read and studied in private, 
 and kept up a brisk correspondence with relatives, and 
 by these means expanded and fed her mind, and culti 
 vated an easy and graceful style of writing. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth of October, 1764, Miss Smith be- 
 came the wife of John Adams, a lawyer of Braintree."^ 
 
 *The part of the town in which he lived was afterwards called Quincy 
 hi honor of Mrs. Adams's maternal grandfather. 
 
40 NOBLE DEEDS. 
 
 Her grandson, Charles Francis Adams, to whose Me- 
 moir of her we are indebted for these statistics, says, 
 that " the ten years immediately following, present 
 little that is worth recording." 
 
 Prior to 1778, Mr. and Mrs. Adams had bieen sepa- 
 rated at sundry times, in all, more than three years, 
 which was a severe trial to her fortitude. The strength 
 of her conjugal affection' may be gathered from an ex- 
 tract from one of her letters : " I very well remember," 
 she writes, " when the eastern circuits of the courts, 
 which lasted a month, were thought an age, and an 
 absence of three months, intolerable ; but we are car- 
 ried from step to step, and from one degree to another, 
 to endure that which at first we think impossible." 
 Thus she was schooled for separation from her hus- 
 band, when, in 1778, he went to France as a joint com- 
 missioner. While he was absent from his country 
 on that occasion, faithful to the calls of duty, she 
 remained at home, and managed, as she had done 
 before, the affairs of the household and farm. And 
 tliere let the reader look at her and see a picture of 
 a true mother of the Ee volution. " She is a farmer 
 cultivating the land, and discussing the weather and 
 crops ; a merchant reporting prices-current and the 
 rates of exchange, and directing the making up of 
 invoices ; a politician, speculating upon the proba- 
 bilities of peace or war ; and a mother, writing the 
 most exalted sentiments to her son." 
 
 What nobler deed could the mother, thus situated, 
 do with her son, John Quincy Adams, in a foreign 
 land, than to write to him in a tone like that of the 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 41 
 
 extracts which follow, and wliich are taken from 
 letters dated 1778-80 : 
 
 " 'T is almost four months since you left your native 
 land, and embarked upon the mighty waters, in quest 
 of a foreign country. Although I have not particularly 
 ivritten to you since, yet you may be assured you have 
 constantly been upon my heart and mind. 
 
 " It is a very difficult task, my dear son, for a ten- 
 der parent to bring her mind to part with a child of 
 your years going to a distant land ; nor could I have 
 acquiesced in such a separation under any other care 
 than that of the most excellent parent and guardian 
 who accompanied you. You have arrived at years ca- 
 pable of improving under the advantages you will be 
 likely to have, if you do but properly attend to them. 
 They are talents put into your hands, of which an 
 account will be required of you hereafter ; and being 
 possessed of one, two, or four, see to it that you 
 double your numbers. 
 
 " The most amiable and most useful disposition in 
 a young mind is diffidence of itself; and this should 
 lead you to seek advice and instruction from him, who 
 is your natural guardian, and will always counsel and 
 direct you in the best manner, both for your present 
 and future happiness. You are in possession of a na- 
 tural good understanding, and of spirits unbroken by 
 adversity and untamed with care. Improve your un- 
 derstanding by acquiring useful knowledge and virtue, 
 such as will render you an ornament to society, an 
 honor to youi* country, and a blessing to your parents. 
 Great learning and superior abilities, should you ever 
 
42 ' NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 possess tliem, will be of little value and small estima- 
 tion, unless virtue, honor, truth, and integrity are 
 added to them. Adhere to those religious sentiments 
 and principles which were early instilled into your 
 mind, and remember that you are accountable to your 
 Maker for all yom* words and actions. 
 
 " Let me enjoin it upon you to attend constantly 
 and steadfastly to the precepts and instructions of your 
 father, as you value the happiness of your mother and 
 your own welfare. His care and attention to you ren- 
 der many things unnecessary for me to write, which I 
 might otherwise do ; but the inadvertency and heed- 
 lessness of youth require line upon line and precept 
 upon precept, and, when enforced by the joint efforts 
 of both parents, will, I hope, have a due influence up- 
 on your conduct ; for, dear as you are to me, I would 
 much rather you should have found your grave in the 
 ocean you have crossed, or that any untimely death 
 crop you in your infant years, than see you an immo- 
 ral, profligate, or graceless child. 
 
 " You have entered early in life upon the great 
 theatre of the world, w^hich is full of temptations and 
 vice of every kind. You are not wholly unacquainted 
 with history, in which you have read of crimes which 
 your inexperienced mind could scarcely believe credi 
 1)1 e. You have been taught to think of them with 
 horror, and to view vice as 
 
 *a nionstei- of so friglitful mien, 
 That, to be hated, needs but to be seen.' 
 
 " Yet you must keep a strict guard upon yourself, or 
 the odious monster will soon lose its terror by becoin- 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 43 
 
 ing familiar to you. The modem history of om- own 
 times, furnishes as black a list of crimes, as can he 
 paralleled in ancient times, even if we go back to 
 Nero, Caligula, or Caesar Borgia. Young as you are, 
 t]\e cruel war into which we have been compelled by 
 the haughty tyrant of Britain and the bloody emissa- 
 ries of his vengeance, may stamp upon your mind this 
 certain truth, that the welfare and prosperity of all 
 countries, communities, and, I may add, individuals, 
 depend upon their morals. That nation to which we 
 were once united, as it has departed from justice, 
 eluded and subverted the wise laws which formerly 
 governed it, and suffered the worst of crimes to go 
 unpunished, has lost its valor, wisdom and humanity, 
 and, from being the dread and terror of Europe, has 
 sunk into derision and infamy 
 
 " Some author, that I have met with, compares a 
 judicious traveler to a river, that increases its stream 
 the further it flows froiQ its source ; or to certain 
 springs, which, running through rich veins of minerals, 
 improve their qualities as they pass along. It will be 
 expected of you, my son, that, as you are favored with 
 euperior advantages under the instructive eye of a 
 tender parent, your improvement should bear some 
 proportion to your advantages. JS'othing is wanting 
 with you but attention, diligence, and steady applica- 
 tion. ISTature has not been deficient. 
 
 " These are times in which a genius would wish to 
 live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose 
 of a pacific station, that gi'eat characters are formed. 
 Would Cicero have shone so distinguished an orator 
 
44 irOBLE DEEDS 
 
 if he had not been roused, kindled, and inflamed by 
 the tyranny of Catiline, Yerres, and Mark Anthony ? 
 The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contend- 
 ing with difficulties. All history will convince you of 
 this, and that wisdom and penetration are the fruit of 
 experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. 
 Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind 
 is raised and animated by scenes that engage the 
 heai-t, then those qualities, which would otherwise lie 
 dormant, wake into life and form the character of the 
 hero and the statesman. War, tyranny, and desola- 
 tion are the scourges of the Almighty, and ought no 
 doubt to be deprecated. Yet it is your lot, my son, 
 to be an eye witness of these calamities in your own 
 native land, and, at the same time, to owe your 
 existence among a people who have made a glorious 
 defence of their invaded liberties, and who, aided 
 by a generous and powerful ally, with the blessing 
 of Heaven, will transmit this inheritance to ages 
 yet unborn. 
 
 " l^or ought it to be one of the least of your incite- 
 ments towards exerting every power and faculty of 
 your mind, that you have a parent who has taken so 
 large and active a share in this contest, and discharged 
 the trust reposed in him with so much satisfaction as 
 to be honored with the important embassy which at 
 present calls him abroad. 
 
 " The strict and inviolable regard you have ever 
 paid to truth, gives me pleasing hopes that you will 
 not swerve from her dictates, but add justice, forti- 
 tude, and every manly virtue which can adorn a good 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 4& 
 
 citizen, do honor to your country, and render your 
 parents supremely happy, particularly your ever aifec- 
 tionate mother. 
 
 . . . " The only sure and permanent foundation 
 of virtue is religion. Let this important truth be 
 engraven upon your heart. And also, that the foun- 
 dation of religion is the belief of the one only God, 
 and a just sense of his attributes, as a being infi- 
 nitely* wise, just, and good, to whom you owe the 
 highest reverence, gratitude, and adoration ; who 
 superintends and governs all nature, even to clothing 
 the lilies of the field, and hearing the young ravens 
 when they cry ; but more particularly regards man, 
 whom he created after his own image, and breathed 
 into him an immortal spirit, capable of a happiness 
 beyond the grave ; for the attainment of which he is 
 bound to the performance of certain duties, which all 
 tend to the happiness and welfare of society, and are 
 comprised in one short sentence, expressive of uni- 
 versal benevolence, ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
 thyself.' 
 
 " Justice, humanity, and benevolence, are the duties 
 you owe to society in general. To your country the 
 same duties are incumbent upon you, with the addi- 
 tional obligation of sacrificing ease, pleasure, wealth, 
 and life itself for its defence and security. To your 
 parents you owe love, reverence, and obedience to all 
 just and equitable commands. To yourself, — 'here, 
 indeed, is a mde field to expatiate upon. To become 
 what you ought to be, and what a fond mother wishes 
 to see you, attend to some precepts and instructions 
 
46 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 from the pen of one, who can have no motive but your 
 welfare and happiness, and who wishes in this way to 
 supply to you the personal watchfulness and care, 
 which a separation from you deprived you of at a 
 period of life, when habits are easiest acquired and 
 fixed ; and though the advice may not be new, yet 
 suffer it to obtain a place in your memory, for 
 occasions may offer, and perhaps some concurring 
 circumstances unite, to give it weight and force. 
 
 " Suffer me to recommend to you one of the most 
 useful lessons of life, the knowledge and study of your- 
 self. There you run the greatest hazard of being de- 
 ceived. Self-love and partiality cast a mist before the 
 eyes, and there is no knowledge so hard to be acquired, 
 nor of more benefit when once thoroughly understood. 
 Ungoverned passions have aptly been compared to the 
 boisterous ocean, which is known to produce the most 
 terrible effects. 'Passions are the elements of life,' 
 but elements which are subject to the control of rea- 
 son. Whoever will candidly examine themselves, 
 will find some degree of passion, peevishness, or 
 obstinacy in their natural tempers. You will seldom 
 find these disagreeable ingredients all united in one ; 
 but the uncontrolled indulgence of either is sufiicient 
 to render the possessor unhapjDy in himself, and disa- 
 greeable to all who are so unhappy as to be witnesses 
 of it, or suffer from its effects. 
 
 " You, my dear son, are formed witli a constitution 
 feelingly alive ; your passions are strong and im- 
 petuous ; and, though I have sometimes seen them 
 hurry you into excesses, yet with pleasure I have 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 47 
 
 observed a frankness and generosity accompany your 
 efforts to govern and subdue them. Few persons are 
 so subject to passion, but that they can command them- 
 selves, when they have a motive sufficiently strong ; 
 and those who are most apt to transgress will restrain 
 themselves through respect and reverence to superiors, 
 and even, where they wish to recommend themselves, 
 to their equals. The due government of the passions, 
 has been considered in all ages as a most valuable 
 acquisition. Hence an inspired writer observes, ' He 
 that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and 
 he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city.' 
 This passion, cooperating with power, and unre- 
 strained by reason, has produced the subversion of 
 cities, the desolation of countries, the massacre of 
 nations, and filled the world with injustice and 
 t oppression. Behold your own country, your native 
 -land, suffering from the effects of lawless power and 
 malignant passions, and learn betimes, from your own 
 observation and experience, to govern and control 
 "^ yourself. Having once obtained this self-government, 
 you will find a foundation laid for happiness to your- 
 self and usefulness to mankind. ' Yirtue alone is 
 happiness below ;' and consists, in cultivating and im- 
 proving every good inclination, and in checking and 
 subduing every propensity to evil. I have been par- 
 ticular upon the passion of anger, as it is generally 
 -^ the most predominant passion at your age, the soon- 
 ^ est excited, and the least pains are taken to subdue it; 
 
 ' what composes man, can man destroy.' " 
 
4:8 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 With such a mother to counsel him, one is led to 
 ask, how could John Quinej Adams help becoming a 
 noble-minded and great man? Who wonders that, 
 with good natural endowments and his excellent privi- 
 leges, coupled with maternal training, he fitted himself 
 to fill the highest office in the gift of a free people ? 
 
 In June, 1784, Mrs. Adams sailed for London to join 
 her husband, who was then our Minister at the Court 
 of St. James. While absent, she visited France and 
 Netherlands ; resided for a time in the former country ; 
 and returned with her knowledge of human nature, of 
 men, manners, &c., enlarged ; disgusted with the splen- 
 dor and sophistications of royalty, and well prepared to 
 appreciate the republican simplicity and frankness 
 of which she was herself a model. While Mr. 
 Adams was Yice-President and President, she never 
 laid aside her singleness of heart, and that sincerity 
 and unaffected dignity which had won for her many 
 friends before her elevation, and which, in spite of na- 
 tional animosity, conquered the prejudices and gained 
 the hearts of the aristocracy of Great Britain. But her 
 crowning virtue was her Christian humility, which is 
 beautifully exemplified in a letter which she wrote to 
 Mr. Adams, on the 8th of February, 1797, "the day 
 on which the votes for President were counted, and 
 Mr. Adams, as Yice-President, was required by law to 
 announce himself the President elect for the ensuing 
 term :" 
 
 " ' The sun is dressed in brightest beams, 
 To give thy honors to tlie day.' 
 
 " And may it prove an auspicious prelude to each 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 49 
 
 ensuing season. You have this day to declare your- 
 self head of a nation. *And now, O Lord, my 
 God, .thou hast made thy servant ruler over the 
 people. Give unto him an understanding heart, 
 that he may know how to go out and come in 
 before this great people ; that he may discern between 
 good and bad. For who is able to judge this thy so 
 great a people V were the words of a royal sovereign ; 
 and not less applicable to him who is invested with 
 the chief magistracy of a nation, though he wear 
 not a crown, nor the robes of royalty. 
 
 " My thoughts and my meditations are with you, 
 though personally absent ; and my petitions to Heaven 
 are, that ' the things which make for peace may not 
 be hidden from your eyes.' My feelings are not those 
 of pride or ostentation, upon the occasion. They are 
 solemnized by a sense of the obligations, the important 
 ti*usts, and numerous duties connected with it. That 
 you may be enabled to discharge them with honor to 
 yourself, with justice and impartiality to your country, 
 and with satisfaction to this great people, shall be the 
 daily prayer of your "A. A." 
 
 From her husband's retirement from the Presi- 
 dency, in 1801, to the close of her life, in 1818, Mrs. 
 Adams remained constantly at Quincy. Cheerful, 
 contented, and happy, she devoted her last years, in 
 that rural seclusion, to the reciprocities of friendship 
 and love, to offices of kindness and charity, and, in 
 short, to all those duties which tend to ripen the 
 Christian for an exchange of worlds. 
 
 But it would be doing injustice to her character 
 4 
 
50 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 and leaving one of her noblest deeds unrecorded, to 
 close without mentioning the influence for good 
 which she exerted over Mr. Adams, and her part in 
 the work of making him what he was. That he was 
 sensible of the benignant influence of wives, may 
 be gathered from the following letter which was 
 addressed to Mrs. Adams from Philadelphia, on the 
 eleventh of August, 1777 : 
 
 "I think I have some times observed to you in 
 conversation, that upon examining the biography of 
 illustrious men, you will generally find some female 
 about them, in the relation of mother, or wife, or 
 sister, to whose instigation a great part of their merit 
 is to be ascribed. You will find a curious example 
 of this in the case of Aspasia, the wife of Pericles. 
 She was a woman of the greatest beauty, and the 
 first genius. She taught him, it is said, his refined 
 maxims of policy, his lofty imperial eloquence, nay, 
 even composed the speeches on which so great a 
 share of his reputation was founded. 
 
 "I wish some of our great men had such wives. 
 By the account in your last letter, it seems the 
 women in Boston begin to think themselves able to 
 serve their country. What a pity it is that our 
 generals in the northern districts had not Aspasias 
 to their wives. 
 
 "I believe the two Howes have not very great 
 women to their wives. If they had, we should suffer 
 Biore from their exertions than we do. This is our 
 good fortune. A smart wife would have put Howe 
 in possession of Philadelphia a long time ago." 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. ' 51 
 
 "WTiile Mr. Adams was wishing that some of our 
 great men had such wives as Aspasia, he had such 
 a wife, was himself such a man, and owed half his 
 greatness to Ms Aspasia. The exalted patriotism and 
 the cheerful pietj infused into the letters she addres- 
 sed to him during the long night of political uncer- 
 tainty that hung oyer these Colonies, strengthened 
 his courage, fired his nobler feelings, nerved his 
 higher purposes and, doubtless, greatly contributed 
 to make him the right hand man of Washington. 
 
 The diligent and faithful Andromaches, the gifted 
 and patriotic Astasias of the Revolution, did their por- 
 tion of the great work silently and unseen. Secretly 
 they urged their husbands and sons to the battle- 
 field, secretly spoke to them by letter in the camp or 
 convention, and secretly prayed for wisdom to guide 
 oiir statesmen and victory to crown our arms. Thus 
 privately acting, how little of their labor or their 
 worth is known. How few of their names are trea 
 sured in our annals. With rare exceptions, like the 
 builders of the pyramids, their initials are lost. 
 Then, while we have the name and the noble exam- 
 ple of Mrs. Adams, with a few of her patriotic 
 compeers, let us pledge our unswerving devotion to 
 Freedom over the unknown names of the wives and 
 mothers who secretly assisted in nerving the arm 
 that broke the sceptre of British dominion on these 
 shores, and gave the eagle of Liberty a safe and 
 abiding home on our mountain tops. 
 
ANI^ H. JTJDSON.,^ 
 
 G(J(1 has a bright example made of thee, 
 To show that womankind may be 
 Above that sex which her superior seems. 
 
 Cowley. 
 
 About the commencement of the present century, 
 a new field was opened for the display of Christian 
 heroism. The despairing wail of the pagan millions 
 of the East, had reached the ears of a few of the 
 most devoted people of God on these Western shores, 
 and the question arisen. Who shall lead the way to 
 iieathen realms, who among us first encounter the 
 perils of an attempt to plant the standard of the 
 Cross beside the pagodas of Buddhism ? He who 
 would then go forth, must leave his native land with 
 the parting benediction of but few friends ; must 
 be accompanied with few and faint prayers ; must 
 make his own path through the tiger-haunted jun- 
 gles, and face alone the untried dangers of a dubious 
 assault on the strong-holds of pagan superstition. 
 But, notwithstanding the discouragements inwoven 
 with the contemplation of the undertaking, and the 
 great peril that must attend its completion, it was 
 magnanimous and sublime, and there were hearts in 
 
OF AMEBICAJJ WOMEN. 63 
 
 the land philanthropic enough to embark in it and 
 brave enough to face its terrors without fainting. 
 
 Among the foremost Americans who offered their 
 services in this work, were the Rev. Adoniram 
 Judson and his wife. They embarked from Salem, 
 MassachuMiiJs, for Calcutta, with Samuel Newell and 
 lady, on tn^ nineteenth of February, 1812 : and ^yq 
 days afterwards Messrs. Hall and JSTott, with their 
 wives, and Mr. Eice, sailed from Philadelphia for 
 the same place. The names of these pioneer mis- 
 sionaries are sacred to the memory of all living 
 Christians, and, being embodied in the history of 
 the grandest enterprise of the age, are to be handed 
 down to all future generations. 
 
 While all the female portion of this little band, 
 exhibited many excellent traits of character, and 
 worked well while their day lasted, no other one 
 endured so many and so great hardships and trials, 
 encountered such fearful perils, and had such an 
 opportunity to test the strength of the higher virtues, 
 as Mrs. Judson. 
 
 Ann Hasseltine was bom at Bradford, in Essex 
 county, Massachusetts, on the twenty-second day of 
 December, 1789. She was an active and enthusiastic 
 child ; of a gay disposition, yet thoughtful at times ; 
 and before she was seventeen, gave religion that 
 attention Avhich its importance demands. 
 
 She became acquainted with Mr. Judson in 1810. 
 He was then a student in the Andover Theological 
 Seminary, preparing for the work of foreign missions. 
 A mutual and strong attachment sprang up, and they 
 
54 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 were married in February, 1812, two weeks before 
 their embarkation for India. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Judson first halted at Serampore. 
 There, soon after their arrival, they were immersed 
 by an English missionary, having changed their views 
 of the ordinance of baptism on the |M^ voyage 
 Across the Atlantic and Indian oceans, r'rom that 
 place they were soon driven by the Directors and 
 Agents of the British East India Company, who were 
 at that time opposed to the introduction of the Chris- 
 tian religion into those parts. They sailed from 
 Madras for Rangoon, on the twenty-second of June, 
 1813, and settled at the latter place. 
 
 From the commencement of missionary toil, Mrs. 
 Judson had many inconveniencies to encounter, but 
 they were met with patience and served to strengthen 
 that energy which, it will be seen, was afterwards so 
 much needed and so strikingly displayed. Four or 
 five years after settling at Rangoon, Mr. Judson went 
 to Chittagong, in a neighboring province, to secure 
 help, some Arracanese converts being there, who 
 spoke the Burman language. He expected to return 
 within three months. "At the expiration of this 
 period, however, when his return was daily expected, 
 a vessel from Chittagong arrived at Rangoon, bring- 
 ing the distressing intelligence that neither he nor 
 the vessel in which he had embarked had been 
 heard of at that port. Similar tidings were also 
 contained in letters which Mrs. Judson received 
 from Bengal. 
 
 " While the missionaries were in this state of fear- 
 
OF AMEKICA]^ WOMEN. 66 
 
 ful suspense, an incident occurred which was well 
 calculated to increase the perplexity and dismay in 
 which they were plunged. Mr. Hough,* who had 
 continued quietly studying the language at the mis- 
 sion house, was suddenly summoned to appear 
 immedia^^jT ^* *^® court house, and it was rumored 
 among tflle affrighted domestics and neighbors who 
 followed the officers that came for Mr. Hough, that 
 the king had issued a decree for the banishment of 
 all the foreign teachers. It was late in the afternoon 
 when he made his appearance before the despotic 
 tribunal that was charged with the execution of the 
 imperial decree, and he was merely required to give 
 security for his appearance the following morning; 
 when, as the unfeeling magistrates declared, 'if he 
 did not tell all the truth relative to his situation in 
 the country, they would write with his heart's blood.' 
 Mr. Hough was detained from day to day on the 
 most flimsy pretences, himself unable to speak the 
 language, and with no one near him who would 
 attempt to explain his situation or vindicate his 
 objects and his conduct. The viceroy whom Mr. and 
 Mrs. Judson had known, had recently been recalled 
 to Ava, and he who now held the reins of the 
 government was a stranger, and, as his family were 
 not with him, Mrs. Judson, according to the etiquette 
 of the court, could not be admitted to his presence. 
 The order which had led to the arrest was found to 
 relate to some Portuguese priests whom the king had 
 
 Mr Hough was a printer in the employment of the Baptist Board. 
 
 AUTHOE. 
 
56 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 banished, and Mr. Hough was at first snmmoned to 
 give assurance that he was not one of the number, 
 and then detained by the officers in order to extort 
 monej for his ransom. He was at length released by 
 order of the viceroy, to whom Mrs. Judson boldly 
 carried the cause and presented a petition which she 
 had caused her teacher to draw up for the purpose. 
 "The anxiety occasioned by this arrest and its 
 train of petty annoyances, and still more by the pro- 
 tracted and mysterious absence of Mr. Judson, was 
 at this time greatly increased by rumors which 
 reached Rangoon, of an impending war between the 
 English and the Burman governments. There were 
 but few English vessels lying in the river, and the 
 English traders who were in the country were 
 -(iilosing their business and preparing to hasten away, 
 at any new indications of hostilities that should be 
 presented. The condition of the missionaries was 
 rendered still more distressing by the ravages of 
 the cholera, which now, for the first time made its 
 appearance in Burmah, and was sending its terrors 
 throughout the empire. The poor people of Rangoon 
 fell in hundreds before its frightful progress. Tho 
 dismal death-drum continually gave forth its warning 
 sound as new names were added to the melancholy 
 list of victims to the desolating malady. In these 
 gloomy circumstances, they saw ship after ship leave 
 the river, bearing away all the foreigners who were 
 in the province, until at length the only one remain- 
 ing was on the eve of sailing. Harassed with doubts 
 concerning the uncertain fate of Mr. Judson, and 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 57 
 
 surrounded with perils, they saw before tliem what 
 appeared the last opportunity of leaving the country, 
 before the threatened hostilities should begin, and 
 they should be exposed to all the merciless cruelties 
 of barbarian warfare. 
 
 "Mr. and Mrs. Hough decided to go on board and 
 escape to Bengal, while escape was still in their 
 power, and they urged Mrs. Judson to accompanj 
 them. She at length reluctantly yielded to their 
 advice, and with a heart burdened with sorrows she 
 embarked with her companions, on the fifth of July, 
 in the only ship that remained to caiTy them from 
 the country. The ship, however, was delayed for 
 several days in the river, and was likely to be sub- 
 jected to still further detention. Mrs. Judson, who 
 had gone on board rather in obedience to the entrea- 
 ties of her associates, and the dictates of prudence, 
 than from the suggestions of that truer instinct 
 which often serves to guide the noblest natures in 
 great emergencies, now decided to leave the ship 
 and return alone to the mission house, there to await 
 either the return of her husband, or the confirmation 
 of her worst fears respecting his fate. It was a noble 
 exhibiton of heroic courage, and gave assurance of 
 all the distinguished qualities which, at a later 
 period and amid dangers still more appalling, shone 
 with unfailing brightness around the character of 
 this remarkable woman. The event justified her 
 determination ; and, within a week after her decision 
 was taken, Mr. Judson arrived at Rangoon, having 
 been driven from place to place by contrary winds, 
 
u 
 
 NOBLE 1>EEI)S 
 
 and having entirely failed of the object for which he 
 undei'took the voyage." * 
 
 In the summer of 1820, Mrs. Judson's health' had 
 become so far undermined by the deleterious influ- 
 ences of the climate, that it was deemed necessary 
 that she should go to Calcutta for medical advice, 
 better physicians being located there than in Han- 
 goon. She was so feeble that her husband was 
 obliged to accompany her. She was soon removed 
 to Serampore, where were eminently skillful phy- 
 sicians and a purer atmosphere. Her health so 
 improved in six months that she returned with 
 her husband to Rangoon. The malady which had 
 afflicted her was the chronic liver complaint. It 
 was not entirely removed at Serampore, and a few 
 months after her return, it began to distress her 
 more than ever. It was now thought that nothing 
 but a visit to her native land could save her. Ac- 
 cordingly, on the twenty-first of August, 1821, she 
 started for Calcutta, where, after some delay, she 
 found a ship bound to England, by which route she 
 returned, reaching ~New York on the twenty-fifth of 
 September, 1822. 
 
 She remained in this country nine months. Du 
 ring that short period, aside from paying a visit to 
 her relations, she attended the Triennial Convention 
 at Washington, held in May, 1823 ; visited the larger 
 cities J^orth and South ; attended numerous meetings 
 of female associations ; and prepared a history of 
 
 * Gammell's History of American Baptist Missions. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 59 
 
 t]\e Burman mission which was so ably written that 
 even the London Quarterly Review, and, if we mis- 
 take not, other English periodicals of high critical 
 character, noticed it in commendatory terms. 
 
 The following extracts from letters written to Dr. 
 Wayland while in this country, show the interest 
 she took in the aifairs of Burmah while absent from 
 that land of her adoption. Under date of " Balti- 
 more, January twenty-second, 1823," she says, "I 
 want the Baptists throughout the United States to 
 feel, that Burmah TYiust he convoerted through their 
 instrumentality. They must do more than they 
 have ever yet done. They must pra/y more, they 
 must give more, and make greater efforts to prevent 
 the Missionary flame from becoming extinct. Every 
 Christian in the United States should feel as deeply 
 impressed with the importance of making continual 
 efforts for the salvation of the heathen, as though 
 their conversion depended solely on himself. Every 
 individual Christian should feel himself guilty if he 
 has not done and does not continue to do all in his 
 power for the spread of the gospel and the enlight- 
 ening of the heathen world. But I need not write 
 thus to you. You see, you feel the misery of the 
 heathen world. Try to awaken Christians around 
 Tou. Preach frequently on the subject of Missions. 
 I have remarked it to be the case, when a minister 
 feels much engaged for the heathen, his people gen- 
 eraly partake of his spirit." 
 
 Writing from Washington in the following March, 
 she says, " I long to be in Rangoon, and am anxiously 
 
60 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 hoping to get away in the spring. Do make inquiries 
 relative to the sailing of ships from Boston and 
 Salem. I must not miss one good opportunity." 
 
 With her health much improved though not fullj 
 restored, she sailed for her Burman home on the 
 twenty-second of June, 1823, and reached Rangoon 
 on the fifth of the following December. She found 
 the work of the mission prospering. The next year, 
 however, a war broke out between the Burman go- 
 vernment and the English in Bengal, and, not only 
 suspended the operations of the missionaries, but 
 jeopardised their lives. They were supposed to be 
 spies employed by the English government. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Judson, with Dr. Price, another of the mission 
 aries, were at that time at Ava, where the imperial 
 government of the BmTnan Empire had just been 
 removed. 
 
 " It was on the eighth of June, 1824, that a com 
 pany of Burmans, headed by an officer, and attended 
 by a ' spotted-faced son of the prison,' came to the 
 mission house, and, in the presence of Mrs. Judson 
 seized her husband and Dr. Price, and after binding 
 them tight with cords, drove them away to the coui't 
 house. From this place they were hurried, by order of 
 the king, without examination, to a loathsome dun- 
 geon, known as ' the death prison,' where along with 
 the other foreigners they were confined, each loaded 
 with three pairs of fetters and fastened to a long pole, 
 so as to be incapable of moving. Meanwhile, Mrs. 
 Judson was shut up in her house, deprived of her fur- 
 niture and of most of her articles of property, and 
 watched for several dkys by an unfeeling guard, to 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 01 
 
 wliose rapacious extortions and brutal annoyances 
 she was constantly exposed, without being able to 
 make any exertion for the liberation of the prison- 
 ers, or the mitigation of their cruel sentence. She 
 however, at length succeeded in addressing a petition 
 to the governor of the city, who had the prisoners in 
 charge. By a present of one hundred dollars to his 
 subordinate officer, their condition was somewhat 
 meliorated, and by the unwearied perseverance of 
 Mrs. Judson, and her affecting appeals to the sympa- 
 thies of the governor, he was induced to grant her 
 occasional permission to go to the prison, and at 
 length to build for herself a bamboo shed in the 
 prison yard, where she took up her abode, in order 
 that she might prepare food for the prisoners, 
 and otherwise minister to their necessities. 
 
 " At the end of nine months they were suddenly 
 removed from Ava to Amarapura, and thence to 
 a wretched place several miles beyond, called 
 Oung-pen-la, where it was arranged that they should 
 be put to death in presence of the pakah-woon, as a 
 kind of sacrifice in honor of his taking command of 
 a new army of fifty thousand men about to march 
 against the English. This sanguinary chief had 
 been raised from a low condition to the rank of 
 woongyee; but in the height of his power, just as 
 he was about to march at the head of the army 
 he had mustered, he fell into disgrace, was charged 
 with treason, and executed, at an hour's notice, 
 with the unqualified approbation of all classes 
 of people at Ava. His timely execution saved the 
 
62 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 missionaries from the fate which hung over them, 
 and they were left uncared for in the miserable 
 cells of Oung-pen-la, till the near approach of 
 the English to the capitol induced the king to 
 send for Mr. Judson, to accompany the embassy 
 that was about to start for the English camp, for 
 the purpose of averting the destruction that now 
 threatened the Golden City. 
 
 "During this period of a year and a half Mrs. 
 Judson followed them from prison to prison, beneath 
 the darkness of night and the burning sun of noon- 
 day, bearing in her arms her infant daughter, — the 
 child of sorrow and misfortune, who was born after 
 the imprisonment of its father, — procuring for them 
 food which Burman policy never supplies to "pri- 
 soners, and perpetually interceding for them with 
 their successive keepers, with the governor of the 
 city, with the kinsmen of the monarch, and the 
 members of the royal household. More than once 
 the queen's brother gave orders that they should be 
 privately put to death ; but such was the influence 
 which Mrs. Judson possessed over the mind of the 
 governor, that he evaded the order each time it was 
 given, and assured her that for her sake he would 
 not execute her husband, even though he was obliged 
 to execute all the others. And when at last thev 
 were to be taken from his jurisdiction and driven 
 to the horid prison-house of Oung-pen-la, at the 
 command of the pakah-woon, the old man humanely 
 summoned Mrs. Judson from the prison where he 
 had permitted her to go and sit with her husband, 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 68 
 
 in order that she might be spared the pangs of a 
 separation which he had not the power to prevent. 
 Her own pen has traced, in lines that will never be 
 forgotten bj those who read them, the affecting 
 history of the dismal lays and nights of her 
 husband's captivity. We follow her alike with 
 admiration and the deepest sympathy as she takes 
 her solitary way from Ava, at first in a boat upon 
 the river, and then in a Burman cart, in search of 
 the unknown place to which the prisoners have 
 been carried. At length, overcome with fatigue, 
 with exposure, and the bitter pangs of hope 
 deferred, we see her in a comfortless cabin, pros- 
 trate with disease and brought to the very gates 
 of death, — while her infant is carried about the 
 village by its father in the hours of his occasional 
 liberation, to be nourished by such Burman mothers 
 as might have compassion on its helpless necessities. 
 " Such is a single scene from this melancholy 
 record of missionary suffering. History has not 
 recorded : poetry itself has seldom portrayed, a more 
 affecting exhibition of Christian fortitude, of female 
 heroism, and all the noble and generous qualities 
 which constitute the dignity and glory of woman. 
 In the midst of sickness and danger, and every 
 calamity which can crush the human heart, she 
 presented a character equal to the sternest trial, 
 and an address and fertility of resources which 
 gave her an ascendency over the minds of her 
 most cruel enemies, and alone saved the mission- 
 aries and their fellow captives from the terrible 
 
64 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 doom wliich constantly awaited them. Day after 
 day and amid tlie lonely hours of night was she 
 employed in conciliating the favor of their keepers, 
 and in devising plans for their release, or the alle- 
 viation of their captivity. Sometimes, she confesses, 
 her thoughts would wander for a brief interval to 
 America and the beloved friends of her better days ; 
 * but for nearly a year and a half, so entirely 
 engrossed was every thought with present scenes 
 and sufferings, that she seldom reflected on a single 
 occurrence of her former life, or recollected that 
 she had a friend in existence out of Ava. ' "* 
 
 When peace was declared between the two powers, 
 by the terms of negotiation, the European prisoners 
 were all released ; and thus closed the long and brutal 
 incarceration of the missionaries. Mr. and Mrs. Jud- 
 son immediately departed for Rangoon. They soon 
 removed to Amherst, a new town on the Salwen or 
 Martaban river. After having established a mission 
 there, Mr. Judson had occasion to visit Ava. He 
 started on the fifth of July, 1826, leaving his wife 
 and infant daughter in the care of kind friends. 
 He was detained at the Capital longer than he had 
 anticipated ; and before he returned he received the 
 painful intelligence that his wife was dead. "A 
 remittent fever had settled on her constitution, 
 already enfeebled by suffering and disease, and she 
 died on the twenty-fourth of October, 1826, amid 
 the imiversal sorrow, alike of the English residents 
 
 * Gammell. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 66 
 
 at Amherst and of the native Christians who had 
 gathered around her at her new home. Her infant 
 daughter died a few weeks afterwards, and side 
 by side thej were laid to rest, under a large hopia 
 tree a few rods from the house where she had 
 resided. Two marble stones, procured by the con- 
 tributions of several female friends in her native 
 land, are the humble memorial that marks the 
 spot where sleeps one whose "name will be remem- 
 bered in the churches of Burmah, in future times, 
 when the pagodas of Gaudama shall have fallen; 
 when the spires of Christian temples shall gleam 
 along the waters of the Irrawaddy and the Salwen : 
 and when the ' Golden City ' shall have lifted up 
 her gates to let the King of Glory in." 
 
A CHRISTIAN WOMAl^ IE THE HOUR 
 OF DAl^GER. 
 
 rainbow of tlie battle-storm ! 
 Metbiiiks tbou 'rt gleaming on my sight ; 
 
 1 see tby fair and fragile form 
 Amid the thick cloud of the fight 
 
 Sara J. Clarke. 
 
 One grain of incense with devotion offered. 
 Is beyond all perfumes or Sabaean spices. 
 
 Massinger. 
 
 The following incident, we are informed by Mrs. 
 EUet, was communicated to a minister — Rev. J. H. 
 Saje — by two officers in the Revolutionary war. 
 One of them was in the skirmish referred to ; the 
 other lived near the scene of action ; hence, it may 
 be relied oh as authentic. The name of the hero- 
 ine is unknown, which is greatly to be regretted : 
 
 " Early in the war, the inhabitants on the frontier 
 of Burke county, ITorth Carolina, being apprehen- 
 sive of an attack by the Indians, it was determined 
 to seek protection in a fort in a more densely popu- 
 lated neighborhood in an interior settlement. A 
 party of soldiers was sent to protect them on their 
 retreat. The families assembled, the line of march 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 67 
 
 w.'ia taken towards their place of destination, and 
 they proceeded some miles unmolested — the soldiers 
 marching in a hollow square, with the refugee fami- 
 lies in the centre. The Indians who had watched 
 these movements, had laid a plan for their destmc- 
 tion. The road to be traveled lay through a dense 
 forest in the fork of a river, where the Indians 
 concealed themselves, and waited till the travelers 
 were in the desired spot. Suddenly the war-whoop 
 sounded in front, and on either side ; a large body 
 of painted warriors rushed in, filling the gap by 
 which the whites had entered, and an appalling 
 crash of fire-arms followed. The soldiers, however, 
 were prepared ; such as chanced to be near the trees 
 darted behind them, and began to ply the deadly 
 rifle; the others prostrated themselves upon the 
 earth, among the tall grass, and crawled to trees. 
 The families screened themselves as best they could. 
 The onset was long and fiercely urged ; ever and 
 anon amid the din and smoke, the warriors would 
 rush, tomahawk in hand, towards the centre ; but 
 they were repulsed by the cool intrepidity of the 
 back-woods riflemen. Still they fought on, deter- 
 mined on the destruction of the victims who offered 
 such desperate resistance. All at once an appalling 
 sound greeted the ears of the women and children 
 in the centre ; it was a cry from their defenders — a 
 cry for powder ! ' Our powder is giving out,' they 
 exclaimed. ' Have you any ? Bring us some, or we 
 can fight no longer!' A woman of the party had a 
 good supply. She spread her apron on the gromid, 
 
68 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 poured her powder into it, and going round, from 
 soldier to soldier, as they stood behind the trees, 
 bade each who needed powder put down his hat, 
 and poured a quantity upon it. Thus she went 
 round the line of defence, till her whole stock, and 
 all she could obtain from others, was distributed. 
 At last the savages gave way, and, pressed by their 
 foes, were driven off the ground. The victorious 
 whites returned ^ those for whose safety they had 
 ventured into the wilderness. Inquiries were made 
 as to who had been killed, and one running up, 
 cried, 'Where is the woman that gave us the pow- 
 der? I want to see her!' 'Yes! — yes! — let us see 
 her!' responded another and another; 'without her 
 we should have been all lost!' The soldiers ran 
 about among the women and children, looking for 
 her and making inquiries. Directly came in others 
 from the pursuit, one of whom observing the com- 
 motion, asked the cause, and was told. 'You are 
 looking in the wrong place,' he replied. 'Is she 
 killed? Ah, we were afraid of that!' exclaimed 
 many voices. ']^ot when I s.aw her,' answered the 
 soldier. 'When the Indians ran off, she was on her 
 hiiees in jpro/yer at the root of yonder tree, and there 
 I left her.' There was a simultaneous rush to the 
 tree — and there, to their great joy, they found the 
 woman safe, and still on her knees in prayer. 
 Thinking not of herself, she received their applause 
 without manifesting any other feeling than gratitude 
 to Heaven for their great deliverance." 
 
HUMAisrrrY of haetfoed ladies. 
 
 As the rivers farthest flowing. 
 
 In the highest hills have birth; 
 As the banyan broadest gi'owing, 
 
 Oftenest bows its head to earth, 
 So the noblest minds press onward, 
 
 Channels far of good to trace ; 
 So the largest hearts bend downward, 
 
 Circlinsr all the human race. 
 
 Mks. Hale. 
 
 The sjmpatliies of a free people are always 
 aroused when a nation is struggling for freedom. 
 Hence the war between the Turks and Greeks not 
 only called forth the eloquence of American orators, 
 but the mothers and daughters of the land, re- 
 minded of the long struggle of their husbands and 
 fathers for liberty, were alive to the interests, and 
 prayed much for the ransom of the latter people. 
 IsTor was this all ; the sufferings to which the war 
 reduced the Greeks, so much moved the hearts of 
 females that, in one instance at least, they made 
 a demonstration of their sympathy worthy of record. 
 The ladies of Hartford, Connecticiit, sent out a ship 
 to the women of Greece, containing money, and 
 articles of wearing apparel, wrought by themselves 
 
70 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 expressly for an offering to suffering humanity. 
 Mrs. Sigoumey, the Secretary of the Ladies' Com- 
 mittee, wrote the following letter to accompany the 
 contribution : 
 
 ^^ United States of America^ March l'2thy 1828. 
 The Ladies of Ha/rtford^ in Connecticut^ to thb 
 Ladies of Greece. 
 
 "Sisters an^d Feiends, — From the years of child- 
 hood your native clime has been the theme of our 
 admiration : together with our brothers and our 
 husbands, we early learned to love the country of 
 Homer, of Aristides, of Solon, and of Socrates. 
 That enthusiasm which the glory of ancient Greece 
 enkindled in our bosoms, has preserved a fervent 
 friendship for her descendants : we have beheld with 
 deep sympathy the horrors of Turkish domination, 
 and the struggles so long and nobly sustained by 
 them for existence and for liberty. 
 
 "The communications of Dr. Howe, since his 
 return from your land, have made us more inti- 
 mately acquainted with your personal sufferings. 
 He has presented many of you to us in his vivid 
 descriptions, as seeking refuge in caves, and, under 
 the branches of olive trees, listening for the foot- 
 steps of the destroyer, and mourning over your 
 dearest ones slain in battle. 
 
 "Sisters and friends, our hearts bleed for you. 
 Deprived of your protectors by the fortune of war, 
 and continually in fear of evils worse than death, 
 our prayers are with you, in all your wanderings, 
 your wants and your griefs. In this vessel (which 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 71 
 
 may God send in safety to your shores!) you will 
 receive a portion of that bounty wherewith He 
 hath blessed us. The poor among us have given 
 according to their ability, and our little children 
 have cheerfully aided, that some of you and your 
 children might have bread to eat and raiment to 
 put on. Could you but behold the faces of our 
 little ones brighten, and their eyes sparkle with 
 joy, while they give up their holidays, that they 
 might work with their needles for Greece ; could 
 you see those females who earn a subsistence by 
 labor, gladly casting their mite into our treasury, 
 and taking hours from their repose that an addi- 
 tional garment might be furnished for you; could 
 you witness the active spirit that pervades all classes 
 of our community, it would cheer for a moment 
 the darkness and misery of your lot. 
 
 "We are the inhabitants of a part of one of the 
 smallest of the United States, and our donations 
 must therefore, of necessity, be more limited than 
 those from the larger and more wealthy cities ; yet 
 such as we have, we give in the name of our dear 
 Saviour, with our blessings and our prayers. 
 
 "We know the value of sympathy — how it arms 
 the heart to endure — how it plucks the sting from 
 sorrow — therefore we have written these few lines 
 to assure you, that in the remoter parts of our coun- 
 try, as well as in her high places, you are remem 
 bered with pity and with affection. 
 
 "Sisters and friends, we extend across the ocean 
 our hands to you in the fellowship of Christ. Wq 
 
72 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 pray that His Cross and the banner of your land 
 may rise together over the Crescent and the Mina- 
 ret — that youi' sons may hail the freedom of ancient 
 Greece restored, and build again the waste places 
 which the oppressor hath trodden down; and that 
 you, admitted once more to the felicities of home, 
 may gather from past perils and adversities a 
 brighter wreath for the kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 "Lydia H. SiGOmiNET, 
 
 " Seereta/ry of the Cheek Cormrnttee of 
 Hartford^ Connecticut^ 
 
"MOTHEK BAILEY." 
 
 No braver dames had Sparta, 
 No nobler matrons Rome. 
 
 W. D. GALLAGIiBE. 
 
 Anna Warner was born in Groton, Connecticut, 
 on the eleventh of October, 1758, and married 
 Captain Elijah Bailey of the same town, in 1YT4. 
 He participated in the hardships and dangers, and 
 she in the trials of the struggle for Independence. 
 He is dead ; she is still Kving.* 
 
 She was a witness of the terrible massacre at 
 Fort Griswold, in Groton, on the sixth of September ; 
 and the following morning she hurried off to the 
 scene of carnage, a distance of three miles, to 
 search for an uncle who was among the brave de-' 
 fenders. She found him among the fatally wounded: 
 at his request that he might see his wife and 
 child before he died, she ran home, caught and 
 saddled a horse for the feeble mother, and taking 
 the child in her arms, carried it the whole distance, 
 that it might receive the kisses and benediction of 
 its dying father ! 
 
 * We are informed by the Postmaster of Groton, in a letter dated 
 the t^nth of December, 1850, that Mrs. B. is stiU living, and that her 
 mibd is somewhat impaii'ed. She is now in her ninety-third year. 
 
74 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 In the montli of July, 1813 a blockading fleet 
 appeared oif the harbor of New London; and on 
 the thirteenth, demonstrations were noticed of an 
 intention to attack the place. Intense excitement 
 now prevailed not only in 'New London, but in 
 all the adjacent towns. Fort Griswold was once 
 more occupied ; small cannon — all to be had — 
 were planted, and every preparation possible was 
 made for a vigorous defence. The greatest defi- 
 ciency was in flannel for cartridges ; and in the 
 emergency a messenger was dispatched to the 
 village to consult with Mrs. Bailey on the most 
 expeditious method of obtaining a supply. She 
 promptly offered to see that each family was 
 visited, and the wants of the soldiery made known. 
 This was done, and each individual in the neigh- 
 borhood cheerfully presented her and her co-laborers 
 whatever of the desired articles could be spared, 
 some in garments and some in the raw material. 
 When these were delivered to the messenger, and 
 there was still found a deficiency, she slyly slipped 
 an under garment from her own person and char- 
 ged him to give that to the British. As the enemy 
 did not deem it expedient to make an attack, it 
 is difiicult to tell what aid that garment rendered ; 
 nor does it matter: its patriotic surrender showed 
 the noble spirit which has always actuated 
 "mother Bailey," and v/as an appropriation for 
 her country wliicli never caused her a blush. * 
 
 * The editor of the Democratic Review, to whom we are indebted 
 for a portion of these facts, visited the heroine of Groton in the fall 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 
 
 75 
 
 of 1846, in the number of his periodical for the January following 
 spoke of her as a remarkable woman, physically, as well as mentally 
 and patriotically. She was then eighty-eight years old, yet as agile as 
 a girl of eighteen, and neither sight nor heaiing had began to fail. 
 " Such then," he adds, " is Mother Bailey. Had she lived in the palmy 
 days of ancient Roman gloiy, no matron of the mighty empire would 
 have been more highly honored." In the same article Mrs. B. is spoken 
 of as the Postmistress of Groton, an office, which the present Post- 
 master assures us, she never held. 
 
 Since the above was originally stereotyped, Mrs. Bailey has died. 
 Her demise occurred in the winter of 1850-1. 
 
ELIZABETH HEAKD. 
 
 Kindness has resistless clianns. 
 
 Rochester. 
 
 Why should'st thou faint ? Heaven smiles above. 
 Though storm and vapor intervene. 
 
 Park Benjamin. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Heard, " a widow of good estate, 
 a mother of many children and a daughter of Mr. 
 Hnll, a revered minister formerly living at Pisquata- 
 qua," was among the sufferers from captivity by the 
 Indians in the latter part of the seventeenth century. 
 She was taken at the destruction of Major Waldron's 
 garrison in Dover, iNew Hampshire, about 1689. She 
 was permitted to escape on account of a favor which 
 she had shown a young Indian thirteen years before — 
 she having secreted him in her house on the " calami- 
 tous day," in 1676, when four hundred savages were 
 surprised in Dover.* 
 
 Having been suffered to escape, writes the Rev. 
 John Pike, minister at Dover, to Dr. Cotton Mather, 
 "she soon after safely arrived at Captain Gerish's 
 
 * Drake's Indian Captivities. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 77 
 
 garrison, where slie found a refuge from the storm. 
 Here she also had the satisfaction to understand that 
 her own garrison, though one of the first that was 
 assaulted, had been bravely defended and succes- 
 fullj maintained against the enemy. This gentle- 
 woman's garrison was on the most extreme fron- 
 tier of the province, and more obnoxious than any 
 other, and therefore incapable of being relieved. 
 Nevertheless, by her presence and courage it hel^ 
 out all the war, even for ten years together ; and the 
 persons in it have enjoyed very eminent preserva- 
 tions. It would have been deserted if she had ac- 
 cepted offers that were made her by her friends to 
 abandon it and retii'e to Portsmouth among them, 
 which would have been a damage to the town and 
 land." 
 
THE LADIES OF PHILADELPHIA IN 1T80. 
 
 I have not shut mine ears to their demands, 
 Nor posted off their suits with slow delays. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 During the long war which, resulted in the Inde- 
 pendence of the American Colonies, the women all 
 over the land were warmly interested in the con- 
 dition of the soldiers, and prompt to relieve their 
 wants when suffering. There was, at times, a sad 
 deficiency of wearing apparel ; and many are the 
 instances in which a noble sacrifice of ease and a 
 liberal expenditure of time and strength, were made 
 by the ladies that this comfort might be restored 
 to the self-sacrificing soldiers. 
 
 In 1780, the ladies of Philadelphia city and 
 county, learning that the soldiers were in great 
 need of clothing, sold their jewelry and converted 
 7ther trinkets into something more serviceable; col- 
 lected by solicitation large sums of money; pur- 
 chased the raw material, plied the needle " with 
 all diligence ;" and in a short time the aggregate 
 amount of their contributions was $7,500.* 
 
 * This sum was raised in and immediately around Philadelphia. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 79 
 
 The number of shirts made by the Ladies of Plii- 
 ladelpliia during that patriotic movement, was twen- 
 ty-two hundred ! These were cut out at the house 
 of Mrs. Sarah Bache, daughter of Dr. Franklin. 
 This lady writing to a Mrs. Meredith, of Trenton, 
 ISTew Jersey, at that time, says, "I am happy to 
 have it in my power to tell you that the sums 
 given by the good women of Philadelphia for the 
 benefit of the arni}^, have been much greater than 
 could, be expected, and given with so much cheer- 
 fulness and so many blessings, that it was rather a 
 pleasing than a painful task to call for them. 1 
 write to claim you as a Philadelphian, and shsiU. 
 think myself honored in }'our donation." 
 
 Tlie efforts of tlie ladies were not, however, limited to tlieir own 
 neighborhood. They addressed circulars to the adjoining counties and 
 states, and the response of N'ew Jersey and Maryland was truly ge- 
 nerous. 
 
THE WIFE OF PEESIDENT EEED * 
 
 Mightier far 
 Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway 
 Of magic potent over sun and star. 
 Is love, though oft to agony disti'est. 
 And though his favorite seat be feeble woman's breast 
 
 Wordsworth 
 
 Undaunted by the tempest, wild and chill. 
 That pours its restless and disastrous roll, 
 0*er ail that blooms below. 
 
 Sands* Yamotden. 
 
 Prominent among the ladies of Philadelphia who, 
 in the summer and fall of 1780, were active in 
 assisting the snfierers in the American army, was 
 Esther Reed, the wife of President Peed. She stood 
 at the head of the Association till her death, which 
 occmred on the eighteenth of September of that 
 year. She was sncceeded by Mrs. Sarah Bache, 
 Mrs. Francis, Mrs. Clarkson, Mrs. Blair and Mrs. 
 Hillegas, who were constituted an Executive Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 * The facts embodied in this notice of Mrs. Reed, are mainly ob- 
 tained from the Life and Correspondence of President Reed. VMe 
 volume II., chapter XII. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 81 
 
 The maiden name of Mrs. Reed was De Berdt. 
 She was bom in London on the twenty-second of 
 October, 1746. There, about the year 1763, slie 
 became acquainted with Mr. Joseph Reed, of New 
 Jersey, then a student at the Temple. She had fond 
 parents and lived in affluence, but from these she at 
 length turned, and, being married in May, 1770, 
 " followed the lover of her youth to these wild Colo- 
 nies." Philadelphia became the home of the happy 
 couple. The wife of an American, she imbibed the 
 sentiments and manifested the spirit of an American, 
 and to the day of her death showed herself worthy 
 to be the wife of an American soldier.- "During 
 &ve years of war, more than half the time her fa- 
 mily was broken up, and for a long period the young 
 wife, with her little children and an aged mother, 
 was driven to seek a distant and precarious refuge." 
 Her husband was an Adjutant-General, and was in 
 the camp much of the time, till he was chosen 
 President — or, as we now say. Governor — of Penn- 
 sylvania, in 1778. Her letters written to him, 
 breathe a patriotic and submissive spirit, and a cheer- 
 ful trust in that "presiding Power" from whom all 
 solace is derived in seasons of danger, disappoint- 
 ment and affliction. 
 
 She was placed at the head of the voluntary asso- 
 ciation of Philadelphia ladies at its formation in 
 May, and as early as the twentieth of the follow- 
 ing month, it will be seen, by an extract from a 
 letter written by Mr. Reed to General Washington, 
 the business of the society was Drogi'essing admi- 
 6 
 
83 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 rably : " The ladies liave canglit tlie liappy contagion, 
 and in a few days Mrs. Keed will have the honor 
 of writing to yon on the subject. It is expected 
 she will have a sum eqnal to £100,000, to be laid 
 out according to 3^our Excellency's direction, in 
 such a way as may be thought most honorable and 
 gratifying to the brave old soldiers who have borne 
 so great a share of the burden of this war. 1 
 thought it best to mention it in this way to your 
 Excellency for your consideration, as it may tend to 
 forward the benevolent scheme of the donors with 
 dispatch. I must observe that the ladies have 
 excej)ted such articles of necessity, as clothing, 
 w^hich the states are bound to provide." 
 
 The following letter, written the next month, ex- 
 plains itself: 
 
 "eSTHEE reed to WASHINGTON. 
 
 "Philadelphia, July 4th, 1780. 
 
 "Sm, — Tlie subscription set on foot by the ladies 
 of this city for the use of the soldiery, is so far 
 completed as to induce me to transmit to your Ex- 
 cellency an account of the money I have received, 
 and which, although it has answered our expecta- 
 tions, does not equal our wishes, but I am per- 
 suaded will be received as a proof of our zeal for 
 the great cause of America, and our esteem and 
 gratitude for those who so bravely defend it. 
 
 "The amount of the subscription is 200,580 dol- 
 lars, and £625 6s. Sd. in specie, which makes in 
 the whole, in paper money, 300,634: dollars. 
 
 " The ladies are anxious for the soldiers to receive 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 83 
 
 the benefit of it, and wait your directions how it 
 can best be disiwsed of. We expect some consi- 
 derable addition from the country, and have also 
 wrote to the other States in hopes the ladies there 
 will adopt similar plans, to render it more general 
 and beneficial. 
 
 "With the utmost pleasure I offer any further 
 attention and care in my power to complete the 
 execution of the design, and shall be happy to ac- 
 complish it agreeable to the intention of the donors 
 and your wishes on the subject. 
 
 "The ladies of my family join me in their re- 
 spectful compliments and sincerest prayer for your 
 health, safety, and success. 
 
 "I have the honor to be, 
 
 "With the highest respect, 
 
 " Your obedient humble servant, 
 
 "E. Eeed." 
 
 During the months of July and August, though 
 in feeble health, Mrs. Reed held frequent corres- 
 pondence with General Washington on tne best 
 mode of administering relief to the destitute sol- 
 diers. Her desire to make herself useful may be 
 inferred from the tone of a letter addressed to her 
 husband from the banks of the Schuylkill, on the 
 twenty-second of August. Among other things, she 
 says, " I received this morning a letter from the 
 General, and he still continues his opinion that the 
 money in my hands should be laid out in linen ; he 
 says, no supplies he has at present or has a prospect 
 of are any way adequate to the wants of the army. 
 
84 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 His letter is, I think, a little formal, as if lie was 
 hurt by our asking his opinion a second time, and 
 our not following his directions, after desiring him 
 to give them. The letter is very complaisant, and I 
 shall now endeavor to get the shirts made as soon 
 as possible. Tliis is o/noiheT drcumstance to urge 
 w/y return to town^ as I can do little towards it 
 TiereP 
 
 The responsible and onerous duties of Mrs. Reed 
 during the summer of 1780, were no doubt injuri- 
 ous to her already poor health, and hastened the 
 approach of death. Early in September she was 
 laid upon a bed of fatal illness, and before the 
 month had closed, as before mentioned, she was in 
 the "mysterious realm." The Council and Assem- 
 bly adjourned to pay their last respect to her exal- 
 ted virtues. Her remains were deposited in the 
 Presbyterian burying-ground in Arch Street, and the 
 following epitaph was inscribed on her tomb : . 
 
 "In memory of Esther, the beloved wife of Joseph Reed, 
 
 President of this State, who departed this life 
 
 On the 18th of September, a. d. 1780, aged 34 years. 
 
 Reader ! If the possession of those virtues of the heart 
 
 Which make life valuable, or those personal endowments which 
 
 Command esteem and love, may claim respectful and affectionate 
 
 Remembrance, venerate the ashes here entombed. 
 
 If to have the cup of temporal blessings dashed 
 
 In the period and station of hfe in which temporal blessings 
 
 May be best enjoyed, demands om* sorrow, drop a tear, and 
 
 Think how slender is that thread on which the joys 
 
 And hopes of life depend,'* 
 
COMPLETION OF BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 
 
 The tardy pile, slow rising there. 
 With tongueless eloquence shall tell 
 Of them who for their country fell. 
 
 Speague. 
 
 Ladies, you deserve 
 
 jjatues, you aeserve 
 To have a temple built you. 
 
 Shakspeark. 
 
 The Bunker HiU Monument Association was in- 
 corporated in June, 1823. Nothing further was done 
 that year. At the second annual meeting, which 
 was held on the seventeenth of June, efficient plans 
 were devised to carry forward the enterprise; and 
 at the end of another year, just half a century after 
 the battle, the corner stone was laid. General La- 
 fayette was then on a visit to the United States, and 
 was ai^propriately chosen to take a leading part i» 
 this interesting ceremony. The monument did not 
 get fairly under way till the spring of 1827. This 
 apparent tardiness was owing to the circumstance 
 that the material was to be brought from a granite 
 quarry in Quincy, and a ran road — the first in the 
 United States — had to be built from the quarry to 
 the wharf in Quincy to convey the stone. 
 
86 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 In 1828, tlie funds were exhansted, and tlie work 
 was not resumed till 1834. Within a year the work 
 was again suspended for the same cause. Nothing 
 fm-ther was done, and but little said, till 1839, when 
 it was announced that two gentlemen — Amos Law- 
 rence, Esq., of Boston, and Judah Truro, Esq., of 
 New Orleans — would give ten thousand each, pro- 
 vided a sum sufficient to complete the monument 
 could be raised. This liberal offer caused some mo- 
 mentary stimulation; but no proposal immediately 
 made was deemed expedient. 
 
 The affairs of the Association now wore, as they 
 had done once or twice before, a gloomy aspect. In 
 the annual report, made on the seventeenth of June, 
 1840, doubts were expressed whether the present gen- 
 eration would see the monument completed. The 
 same discouraging remark was made soon after, in 
 one of the sewing circles of Boston, when, instead of 
 depressing th^ spirits, it raised the ambition and 
 quickened the thoughts of the ladies, and several of 
 them proposed to get up a Fair. It was a happy 
 suggestion ; was forthwith sanctioned by the board 
 of directors ; prompted the issuing of a circnlar by 
 a sub-committee of the same ; raised the stentorian, 
 voice of a free and patriotic press, and met with 
 immediate favor all over the land. 
 
 The ladies had moved in the matter — had taken 
 the worh into their own hands — and all doubts in 
 regard to its speedy comjDletion seemed to vanish. 
 The Fair was announced to be held in Quincy Hall, 
 Boston, to commence on the fifth of Sejitember, 1840 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 87 
 
 Every female in the land was invited to contribute 
 Borne article of her own hands' production, to tlie 
 exhibition. The patriotic spirit of the mothers of the 
 .Revolution was now warm in the hearts of their 
 daugliters^ and ten thousand hands, engaged in the 
 work of preparation, were " plying the needle with 
 exquisite art." 
 
 The ladies were to have the complete management 
 of the Fair ; and, all things in readiness, it com- 
 menced. The product of so much industry and 
 ingenuity, dispensed at the hands of the ladies, 
 presented a scene to the thousands who gathered 
 around the numerous well-stored tables, that is de- 
 scribed by a writer — doubtless an eye-witness — as 
 " brilliant and inspiring."^" 
 
 The Fair continued till the fifteenth of the month. 
 Its success was chronicled from day to day in a 
 journal called "The Monument," printed in the 
 Hall. It was the grandest movement of the kind 
 ever made in the country; was conducted through- 
 out in the most admirable manner, and wound 
 up in triumph. Its net proceeds were $30,035 50. 
 To this sum and the $20,000 pledged by the two 
 gentlemen before mentioned, was soon added enough, 
 from other sources, to make the fund $55,153 27; 
 and the work went on to its completion.f Thus, 
 
 * Frothingliam's Siege of Boston. 
 
 t Tlie last stone was raised on the morning of tlie twentj-tliird of 
 July, 1842 ; tlie government of the Association and a multitude of other 
 people were present on the occasion. Just before this act took place, a 
 canixin was raised to the apex and discharged — a morning salute to call 
 
88 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 at length, a "duty had been performed;" this imp© 
 rishable offering to Freedom, "which had its com 
 mencement in manly patriotism," was "crowned hy 
 garlands of grace and beauty." 
 
 the people togetliei to engage in the matins of Freedom. Edward Carnes, 
 Jr., of Charlestown, accompanied the stone in its ascent, waving the 
 American flag as he went up, and the Charlestown Artillery were mean- 
 while firing salutes to announce to the surrounding country the interest- 
 ing event 
 
LYDIA DAEEAH. 
 
 The brave man is not he who feels no fear. 
 
 For that were stupid and irrational ; 
 
 But he whose noble soul its fear subdues. 
 
 And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks fruva, 
 
 Joanna Baillie. 
 
 We find the following anecdote of the amiable 
 and heroic Quakeress, Lydia Darrah, in the first 
 number of the American Quarterly Eeview: 
 
 When the British army held possession of Phila- 
 delphia, General Howe's head quarters were in 
 Second street, the fourth door below Spruce, in a 
 house which was before occupied by General Cad- 
 walader. Directly opposite, resided William and 
 Lydia Darrah, members of the Society of Friends. 
 A superior officer of the British army, believed to 
 be the Adjutant General, fixed upon one of their 
 chambers, a back room, for private conference ; 
 and two of them frequently met there, with fire 
 and candles, in close consultation. About the se- 
 cond of December, the Adjutant General told Lydia 
 that they would be in the room at seven o'clock, 
 and remain late; and that they wished the family 
 to retire early to bed; adding, that when they 
 
90 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 were going away, they would call her to let them 
 out, and extinguish their fire and candles. She 
 accordingly sent all the family to bed ; but, as the 
 officer had been so particular, her curiosity was 
 excited. She took off her shoes, and put her ear 
 to the key-hole of the conclave. She overheard an 
 order read for all the British troops to march out, 
 late in the evening of the fourth, and attack G-en- 
 eral "Washington's army, then encamped at White 
 Marsh. On hearing this, she returned to her 
 chamber and laid herself down. Soon after, the 
 officers knocked at her door, but she rose only at 
 the third summons, having feigned to be asleep. 
 Her mind was so much agitated that, from this 
 moment, she could neither eat nor sleep ; sup- 
 posing it to be in her power to save the lives of 
 thousands of her countrymen ; but not knowing 
 how she was to convey the necessary information 
 to General Washington, nor daring to confide it 
 even to her husband. The time left, was, however, 
 short; she quickly determined to make her way, 
 as soon as possible, to the American outposts. 
 She informed her family, that, as they were in 
 want of flom-, she would go to Frankfort for some ; 
 her husband insisted that she should take with her 
 the servant maid ; but, to his surprise, she positively 
 refused. She got access to General Howe, and so- 
 licited — what he readily granted, — a pass through 
 tlie British ti'oops on the lines. Leaving lier bag 
 at the mill, she hastened towards the American 
 lines, and encountered on her way an Ameiicaii, 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 91 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel Craig, of the light horse, who, 
 with some of his men, was on the look-out for 
 information. He knew her, and inquired whither she 
 was going. She answered, in quest of her son, an 
 officer in the American army; and prayed the 
 Colonel to alight and walk with her. lie did so, 
 ordering his troops to keep in sight. To him she 
 disclosed her momentous secret, after having ob- 
 tained from him the most solemn promise never to 
 betray her individually, since her life might be at 
 stake, with the British. He conducted her to a 
 house near at hand, directed a female in it to give 
 her something to eat, and he speeded for head 
 quarters, where he brought General Washington 
 acquainted with what he had heard. Washington 
 made, of course, all preparation for baffling the 
 meditated surprise. Lydia returned home with her 
 flour ; sat up alone to watch the movement of the 
 British troo]3S ; heard their footsteps ; but when 
 they returned, in a few days after, did not dare 
 to ask a question, though solicitous to learn the 
 event. The next evening, the Adjutant General 
 came in, and requested her to w^alk up to his 
 room, as lie wished to put some questions. She 
 followed him in terror; and when he locked the 
 door, and begged her, witb an air of mystery to be 
 seated, she was sure that she was either suspected, 
 or had been betrayed. He inquired earnestly whether 
 any of lier family were up the last night he and 
 the other officer met : — she told him tliat they all 
 retired at eight o'clock. He observed — "I know 
 
99 
 
 NOULE DKKDS 
 
 ymjb were asleep, for I knocked at yoiii' chamber door 
 three times before you heard me; — ^I am eiitirelj at 
 a loss to imagine who gave General Washington in- 
 formation of our intended attack, unless the walls of 
 the house could speak. When we anived near White 
 Marsh, we found all their cannon mounted, and the 
 troops prepared to receive us ; and we have marched 
 back like a parcel of fools." 
 
WIDOW STOREY* 
 
 Stick to your aim ; the mongrel 's hold will slip, 
 But only crow-bars loose the bull-dog 's lip ; 
 Small as he looks, the jaw that never yields, 
 Drags down the bellowing monarch of the fields. 
 
 Holmes. 
 
 The first man who commenced a settlement in 
 the town of Salisbury, Yermont, on the Otter creek, 
 was Amos Storey, who, in making an opening in 
 the heart of the wilderness on the right of land to 
 which the first settler was entitled, was killed by 
 the fall of a tree. His widow, who had been left 
 in Connecticut, immediately resolved to push into 
 
 * Fortius anecdote and that of Mrs. Hendee, we are indebted to the 
 Hon. Daniel P. Thompson, of Montpelier, author of " The Green Moun- 
 tain Boys," " Locke Amsden," <fcc. In a note to the author, in a letter 
 which contained these anecdotes, he appropriately observes that " the 
 women of the Green Mountains deserve as much credit for their various 
 displays of courage, endurance and patriotism, in the early settlement of 
 their State, as was ever awarded to their sex for simUar exliibitions in 
 any part of the world. In the controversy with N'ew York and N'ew 
 Hampshire, which took the form of war in many instances ; in the pre- 
 datory Indian incursions, and in the war of the Revolution, they often 
 displayed a capacity for labor and endurance, a spirit and firmness in 
 the hour of danger, and a resolution and hardihood in defending their 
 families, and their threatened land against all enemies, whether domestic 
 or foreign, that would have done honor to the dames of Sparta," 
 
91 r40BLE DEEDS 
 
 the wilderness, with her ten small children, to take 
 his place and preserve and clear up his farm. And 
 this bold resolution she carried out to the letter, in 
 spite of every difficulty, hardship and danger which 
 for years constantly beset her in her solitary loca- 
 tion in the woods. Acre after acre of the dense 
 and dark forest melted away before her axe, which 
 she handled with the dexterity of the most experi- 
 enced chopper. The logs and bushes were piled 
 and burnt by her own strong and untiring hand : 
 crops were raised, by which, with the fruits of her 
 fishing and unerring rifle, she supported herself and 
 her hardy brood of children. As a place of refuge 
 from the assaults of Indians or dangerous wild 
 beasts, she dug out an underground room, into 
 which, through a small entrance made to open un- 
 der an overhanging thicket in the bank of the 
 stream, she nightly retreated with her children. 
 And here she continued to reside, thus living and 
 thus laboring, unassisted, till, by her own hand and 
 the help which her boys soon began to afford her, 
 she cleared u^^ a valuable farm and placed herself 
 in independent circumstances in life. 
 
MRS. HEISTDEE. 
 
 I am tlieir mother, who shall bar me from them. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 On the burning of Royalton, Yermont, by the 
 Indians, in 1776, Mrs. Hendee, of that place, exhi- 
 bited a praiseworthy and heroic character. The 
 attack was sudden, and her husband being absent 
 in the Yermont regiment, and she being in the field, 
 the Indians seized her children, carried them across 
 "White river, at that place perhaps an hundred 
 yards wide and quite deep for fording, and placed 
 them under the keepers haying the other persons 
 they had collected, thirty or forty in number, in 
 charge. On discovering the fate of her children, 
 Mrs. Hendee resolutely dashed into the river, wa- 
 ded through, and fearlessly entering the Indian 
 camp, regardless of their tomahawks menacingly 
 flourished round her head, boldly demanded the 
 release of her little ones, and persevered in her 
 alternate upbraidings and supplications, till her re- 
 quest was granted. She then carried her children 
 back through the river and landed them in safety 
 -on the other bank. But not content with what she 
 
9t> NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 had done, like a patriot, as she was, she immedi- 
 ately returned, begged for the release of the chil- 
 dren of others ; again was rewarded with success, 
 and brought two or three more away; again retur- 
 ned and again succeeded, till she had rescued the 
 whole fifteen of her neighbors' children who had 
 been thus snatched away from their distracted pa- 
 rents. On her last return to the camp of the 
 enemy, the Indians were so struck with her conduct 
 that one of them declared that so brave a squaw 
 deserved to be carried across the river, and ofiered 
 to take her on his back and carry her over. She, 
 in the same spirit, accepted the offer, mounted the 
 back of the gallant savage, was carried to the oppo- 
 site bank, where she collected her rescued troop of 
 children, and hastened away to restore them to their 
 over-joyed parents. 
 
PATKIOTIC WOMEK OF OLD MIDDLESEX 
 
 In the radiant front superior shines 
 That first paternal virtue, public zeal. 
 Who throws o'er all an equal wide survey, 
 And, ever musing on the common weal, 
 Still labors glorious with some gi'eat design. 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 " Old Middlesex" being our native county, witb 
 peculiar pleasure and some local pride, we record 
 the following anecdote. Should the historical plough- 
 share be driven through the other towns in the 
 county, and the towns generally of Massachusetts, 
 it would turn up similar gems in abundance, " of 
 purest ray serene." "We quote from Butler's His 
 tory of Groton : 
 
 "After the departure of Colonel Prescott's regi- 
 ment of ' minute-men,' Mrs. David Wright, of Pep- 
 perell Mrs. Job Shattuck, of Groton, and the neigh- 
 boring women, collected at what is now Jewett's 
 Bridge, over the ITashua, between Pepperell and 
 Groton, clothed in their absent husbands' apparel, 
 and armed with muskets, pitchforks, and such other 
 weapons as they could find ; and having elected 
 Mrs. Wright their commander, resolutely determined 
 that no foe to freedom, foreign or domestic, should 
 
98 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 pass that bridge. For rumors were rife, tnat ilio 
 regulars were approaching and frightful stories of 
 slaughter flew rapidly from place to place, and from 
 house to house. 
 
 "Soon there appeared one* on horseback, suppo- 
 sed to be treasonably engaged in conveying intelK- 
 gence to the enemy. By the implicit command of 
 Sergeant "Wright, he is immediately arrested, un- 
 horsed, searched, and the treasonable correspondence 
 found concealed in his boots. He was detained pri- 
 soner, and sent to Oliver Prescott, Esq., of Groton, 
 and his dispatches were sent to the Committee of 
 Safety." 
 
 * Captain Leonard Wliiting, of Hollis, N. H., a noted tory, who was 
 the bearer of dispatches from Canada to the British in Boston. 
 
THE CACIQUE'S J^GBLE DAUGHTEE. 
 
 I think of thee, sweet lady, as of one 
 Too pure to mix with others, like some star. 
 
 Shining in pensive beauty all alone, 
 Kindred with those around, yet brighter far. i 
 
 Mrs. Wblbt. 
 
 In his history of the Conquest of Florida, Mr 
 Theodore Irving repeats, very interestingly, the story 
 of "Juan Ortiz who, with three other Spaniards, fell into 
 the hands of the Indians by stratagem. The four cap- 
 tives were taken to the village of Hirrihigua, the ca- 
 cique, who ordered them to be executed on a day of 
 religious festival. Three were shot with arrows ; and 
 then "Juan Ortiz, a youth, scarce eighteen years of 
 itge, of a noble family of Seville, was the fourth victim. 
 As they were leading him forth, his extreme youth 
 touched with compassion the hearts of the wife and 
 daughters of the cacique, who interceded in his favor. 
 
 "The cacique listened to their importunities, and 
 granted for the present the life of Ortiz; — but a 
 wretched life did he lead. From morning until even- 
 ing he was employed in bringing wood and watei. 
 
iUO NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 and was allowed but little sleep and scanty food. 
 ]S"ot a day passed that lie was not beaten. On festi- 
 vals he was an object of barbarous amusement to the 
 cacique, who would oblige him to run, from sunrise 
 until sunset, in the public square of the village, where 
 his companions had met their untimely end, Indians 
 being stationed with bows and arrows, to shoot him, 
 should he halt one moment. "When the day was 
 spent, the unfortunate youth lay stretched on the hard 
 floor of the hut, more dead than alive. At such times 
 the wife and daughters of the cacique would come to 
 him privately with food and clothing, and by thei'* 
 kind treatment his life was preserved. 
 
 "At length the cacique, determining to put an end 
 to his victim's existence, ordered that he should be 
 bound down upon a wooden frame, in the form of a 
 huge gridiron, placed in the pablic square, over a bed 
 of live coals, and roasted alive. 
 
 " The cries and shrieks of the poor youth reached 
 his female protectors, and their entreaties were once 
 more successful with the cacique. They unbound 
 Ortiz, dragged him from the fire, and took him to 
 their dwelling, where they bathed him with the juice 
 of herbs, and tended him with assiduous care. After 
 many days he recovered from his wounds, though 
 marked with many a scar. 
 
 "His employment was now to guard the cemetery 
 of the village. This was in a lonely field in the bosom 
 of a forest. The bodies of the dead were deposited 
 in wooden boxes, covered with boards, without any 
 fastening except a stone or a log of wood laid upon 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN.' 101 
 
 llie top; so that the bodies were often cairied away 
 by wild beasts. 
 
 *' In this cemetery was Ortiz stat'oned, with a bow 
 and arrows, to w^atch day and nigLl, and was -told that 
 should a single body be carried away, he would be 
 burnt alive. He returned thanks to God fir having 
 freed him from the dreaded presencs of the cacique, 
 hoping to lead a better life with the dead than ne 
 had done with the living. 
 
 "While watching thus one long wearisome nigti% 
 sleep overpowered him towards morning. He was 
 awakened by the falling lid of one of the chests, and 
 running to it, found it empty. It had contained the 
 body of an infant recently deceased, the child of an 
 Indian of great note. 
 
 "Ortiz doubted not some animal had dragged it 
 away, and immediately set out in pursuit. After 
 wandering for some time, he heard, at a short distance 
 within the woods, a noise like that of a dog gnawing 
 bones. Warily drawing near to the spot, he dimly 
 perceived an animal among the bushes, and invoking 
 succor from on high, let fly an arrow at it. The thick 
 and tangled underwood prevented his seeing the effect 
 of his shot, but as the animal did not stir, he flattered 
 himself that it had been fatal : with this hope he waited 
 until the day dawned, when he beheld his victim, a 
 huge animal of the panther kind, lying dead, the 
 airow having passed through his entrails and cleft 
 his heart. 
 
 '' Gathering together the mangled remains of the 
 infant, anO replacing them in the cofiin, Ortiz dragged 
 
102 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 bis victim in triumph to the village, with the arro^ 
 still in his body. The exploit gained him credit with 
 the old hunters, and for some time softened even the 
 ferocity of the cacique. The resentment of the latter, 
 however, from the wrongs he had suffered from white 
 men, was too bitter to be appeased. Some time after, 
 his eldest daughter came to Ortiz, and warned him 
 that her father had determined to sacrifice him at the 
 jiext festival, which was just at hand, and that thv"? 
 influence of her mother, her sisters, and herself wonM 
 no longer avail him. She wished him, therefore, to 
 take refuge with a neighboring cacique named Mucozo, 
 who loved h^r and sought her in marriage, and who, 
 for her sake, would befriend him. ' This very night 
 at midnight,' said the kind-hearted maiden, 'at the 
 northern extremity of the village you will find a trustj' 
 friend who will guide you to a bridge, about two 
 leagues hence ; on arriving there, you must send him 
 back, that he may reach home before the morning 
 dawn, to avoid suspicion — for well he knows that this 
 bold act, in daring to assist you, may bring down de- 
 struction upon us both. Six leagues further on, you 
 ^will come to the village of Mucozo — tell him I have 
 sent you, and expect him to befriend you in your, ex- 
 tremity — I know he will do it — go, and may your 
 God protect you ! ' Ortiz threw himself at the feet of 
 his generous protectress, and poured out his acknowl- 
 edgments for the kindness she had always shown him 
 The Indian guide was at the place appointed, and they 
 left the village without alarming the warlike savages 
 When they came to the bridge, Ortiz sent back tho 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 103 
 
 f^uide, in obedience to the injunction of his mistress, 
 and, continuing his flight, found himself, by break of 
 day, on the banks of a small stream near the village 
 of Mucozo. 
 
 " Looking cautiously around, he espied two Indians 
 fishing. As he was unacquainted with their language, 
 and could not explain the cause of his coming, he was 
 in dread lest they should take him for an enemy and 
 kill him. He, therefore, ran to the place where they 
 had deposited their weapons and seized upon them. 
 The savages fled to the village without heeding his 
 assurances of friendly intention. The inhabitants sal- 
 lied out with bows and arrows, as though they would 
 attack him. Ortiz fixed an arrow in his bow, but cried 
 out at the same moment, that he came not as an enemy 
 but as an ambassador from a female cacique to theii 
 chief. Fortunately one present understood him, and 
 interpreted his words. On this the Indians unbent 
 their bows, and returning with him to their village, 
 presented him to Mucozo. The latter, a youthful chief 
 tain, of a graceful form and handsome countenance, 
 received Ortiz kindly for the sake of her who had sent 
 him ; but, on further acquaintance, became attached to 
 him for his own merits, treating him with the affection 
 of a brother." 
 
HUMAISE SPIKIT OF A FOEEST MAID, 
 
 "Beuiatli tlie gloom 
 Of overshadowing forests, sweetly springs 
 Tlie unexpected flower." 
 
 Some of the noblest attributes of biimanity are 
 sometimes exhibited by the wild children of the 
 iorest. These attributes, in such cases, seem, like 
 trees in the remotest wilderness, to have gained, by 
 their spontaneous growth, surprising height, symmetry 
 and beauty. 
 
 A lovelier character than Pocahontas, daughtei- 
 01 Powhatan, king of the country w^here the first 
 white settlement in Yirginia was made, is rarely- 
 found among any people. She was lovely in the 
 broadest as well as noblest sense of that word — 
 lovely in features, lovely in disposition,, lovely in 
 the highest adornments of Christian grace. She 
 was, in 160T, "a girl of ten or twelve years of age, 
 who, not only for feature, countenance and expres- 
 sion, much exceeded any of the rest of her people, 
 but for wit and spirit was the only nonpareil of 
 the country." Such w^as Pocahontas, as described 
 
OF AAiERicA^ womi:n. 105 
 
 by the first white man, probably, wlio ever saw 
 her, and in whose behalf, at the above date, she 
 displayed the tenderness and true grandeur of her 
 nature. 
 
 The colonists, writes Mr. Hildreth, in his new 
 History of the United States, " were specially in- 
 structed to seek for a passage to the South Sea; 
 and it was thought that possibly the Chickaho- 
 ming might lead thither. Having ascended as 
 high as Ae could in his barge. Captain Smith fol- 
 lowed up the stream in a canoe, with two colonists 
 and two Indians for com]3anions ; and when the ca- 
 noe would fioat no longer, he left the two colonists 
 to guard it, and struck inland with a single Indian 
 as a guide. Set upon unexpectedly by a large party 
 of natives, who had already surprised and killed 
 the two men left to guard the canoe. Smith bound 
 his Indian guide to his arm as a buckler, and made 
 a vigorous defence, killing three of the assailants ; 
 but as he retreated backward, he presently sank 
 into a miry swamp, and was taken prisoner His 
 captors would have killed him, but he amused 
 them with a pocket compass. Carried in a sort of 
 triumph through several villages, he was taken be- 
 fore Powhatan, the same chief w^hom he had visited 
 in company with Newport. An attempt was made 
 to engage his services' — at least so Smith under- 
 stood it — ia surprising the colonists at Jamestown. 
 Having failed in this, after much consultation, it 
 was resolved to put him to death. He was drag- 
 ged to the grcund and his head placed upon a stone; 
 
106 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 Powhatan raised a club to dash out his brains'* — 
 dad now view the highly dramatic scene which fol- 
 lows, as pictured by Mrs. Sigourney in a few lines 
 o/ masterly coloring : 
 
 The sentenced captive see — his brow how white ! 
 Stretched on the turf, his manly form lies low, 
 The war club poises for its fatal blow. 
 
 The death-mist swims before his darkened sight; 
 Forth spiings the child, in tearful pity bold. 
 Her head on his reclines, her arms his neck enfold, 
 
 " The child ! what madness fires her ? Hence I Depart I 
 Fly, daughter, fly ! before the death-stroke rings ; 
 
 Divide her, warriors ! from that English heart.*' 
 In vain, for with convulsive grasp she clings : 
 
 She claims a pardon from her frowning sire ; 
 
 Her pleading tones subdue his gathered ire, 
 And so, uplifting high his featheiy dart. 
 
 That doting father gave the child her will. 
 
 And bade the victim live and be his servant still. 
 
 After Smith had been an inmate of Powhatan's 
 wigwam awhile, he was permitted to leave the In- 
 dians. Sometime after this the savages, becoming 
 alarmed by witnessing Smith's wonderful feats, "laid 
 a plan to get him into their power under the pre- 
 tence of wishing an interview with him in their ter- 
 ritory. But Pocahontas, knowing the desire of the 
 warriors, left the wigwam after her father had gone 
 to sleep, and ran more than nine miles through the 
 woods to inform her friend Captain Smith of the 
 danger that awaited him, either by stratagem oi 
 attack." 
 
 Subsequently the colony at Jamestown was threat- 
 ened with famine, when, accompanied by a few 
 companions, she was accustv^med to go to the foi't 
 
OF AMEUIO/VN WOMEN. 
 
 107 
 
 every day or two with baskets of com, and thus 
 her 
 
 "generous hand vouchsafed its tireless aid 
 
 To guard a nation's germ." 
 
 At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Pocahontas 
 married a pious young English officer, nanied Thomas 
 Rolfe, and went with him to England, where she was 
 baptized and called Kebecca, and where she soon 
 died. Well may it be said of her, in the language of 
 the poet, slightly altered, 
 
 It is not meet such names should moulder in the grava 
 
 
HAKITAH DUSTIlSr. 
 
 Experience teaches us 
 That resolution 's a sole help at need ; 
 And this, my lord, our honor teacheth us, 
 That we be bold in every enterprise. 
 
 Shakspeabb. 
 
 On the fifteenth of Marcli, 1697, a band of In- 
 dian prowlers broke into the bonse of Mr. Dustin, 
 of Haverbill, Massachusetts, and captured his wife, 
 her nurse,* and a babe about one week old. The 
 last was killed before leaving the town. The other 
 two were marched through the wilderness for seve- 
 ral days till they came to a halt on an island in 
 the Merrimac river about six miles above Concord, 
 ISTew Hampshire. There they were placed in a wig- 
 wam occupied by two men, three women, seven 
 children of theirs, and an English boy who had 
 been captm-ed about a year previous at Worcester, 
 Massachusetts. The captives remained there till the 
 thirtieth of that month before they planned escape. 
 On that day the boy was requested by Mrs. Dustin 
 to ask his master where to strike "to kill instantly;" 
 
 * Mrs. Mary Neff. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 109 
 
 and the savage was simple enough to tell, and also 
 instructed him in the art of scalping. "At night," 
 to use the concise language of Mr. Bancroft, "while 
 the household slumbers, the captives, each with a 
 tomahawk, strike vigorously, and fleetly, and with 
 division of labor, — and of the twelve sleepers, ten 
 lie dead ; of one squaw the wound was not mortal ; 
 one child was spared from design. The love of 
 glory next asserted its power ; and the gun and 
 tomahawk of the murderer of her infant, and a bag 
 heaped full of scalps were choicely kept as trophies 
 of the heroine. — The streams are the guides which 
 God has set for the stranger in the wilderness : in a 
 bark canoe, the three descend the Merrimac to the 
 English settlements, astonishing their friends by 
 their escape, and filling the land with wonder at 
 their successful daring." 
 
 Mrs. Dustin had the happiness of meeting her hus- 
 band and seven children, who had escaped from the 
 house before the savages entered, and the honor of 
 a very handsome present from Colonel Nicholson, 
 governor of Maryland, as a reward for her heroism."^ 
 
 * Eleven years after the capture of Mrs. Dustin, a party of French and 
 Indians from Canada made an atiack upon the inhabitants of Haverhill, 
 and killed and captured about forty persons. Several women exhibited 
 on the occasion a remarkable degree of sagacity, courage and presence ot 
 mind. We condense from Mirick's History of Haverhill. 
 
 Ann Whittaker escaped the tomahawk by hiding in an apple chest 
 under the stairs. — A negro servant, named Hagar, covered a couple 
 of cliildrcn with tubs in the cellar and then concealed herself behind 
 some meat barrels. The Indians trod on a foot of one of the chil- 
 dren and took meat from the bairel behind which Hagai- had hidden, 
 
110 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 without discovering any of them. — Tlie wife of Thomas Hartshorr, 
 took all her children except the babe — which she was afraid would 
 cry — tlirough a trap-door into the cellar. The enemy entered and 
 plundered the house, but did not find the way into the cellar. They 
 t')ok the infant from its bed in the garret and threw it out of the 
 window. Strange to say, though stunned, it lived and grew to rug- 
 ged manhood. — The wife of Captain Simon "Wainwright, after the 
 en^my had killed her husband, let them into the house and treated 
 them kindly. They at length demanded money, when she went out, 
 as she pretended, to get it. They soon ascertained — though too late 
 to find, her — that she had fled with all her children but onC; who 
 was taken captiva 
 
THE HEEOIKES OF BEYA:N'T'S STATION. 
 
 The brave example cannot perish 
 Of courage. 
 
 Nor could the boldest of our youth have dared 
 To pass our outworks. 
 
 Pope's Homeb. 
 
 At the siege of Bryant's station near Lexington, 
 Kentucky, in August, 1Y82, the water in the fort was 
 exhausted; and as the nearest place to obtain a 
 supply was a spring several rods off, it would re- 
 quire no small risk and, consequently, no common 
 intrepidity to undertake to bring it. A body of 
 Indians in plain sight, were trying to entice the 
 soldiers to attack them without the walls, while 
 another party was concealed near the spring, waiting, 
 it was supposed, to storm one of the gates, should 
 the besieged venture out. It was thought probable 
 that the Indians in ambush would remain so until 
 they saw indications that the other party had suc- 
 ceeded in enticing the soldiers to open engagement. 
 
 The position of things was explained to the women, 
 and they were invited to each take a bucket and 
 march to the spring in a body. " Some, as was na- 
 
l12 noble deeds 
 
 tural, had no relish for the undertaking, and asked 
 why the men could not bring water as well 
 as themselves, observing that they were not bullet- 
 proof, and the Indians made no distinction between 
 male and female scalps. To this it was answered, that 
 the women were in the habit of bringing water every 
 morning to the fort; and that if the Indians saw 
 them engaged as usual, it would induce them to 
 think that their ambuscade was undiscovered ; and 
 that they would not unmask themselves for the sake 
 of firing at a few women, when they hoped, by 
 remaining concealed a few moments longer, to obtain 
 complete possession of the fort : that if men should 
 go down to the spring, the Indians would immedi- 
 ately suspect something was wrong, would despair 
 of succeeding by ambuscade, and would instantly 
 rush upon them, foUow them into the fort, or shoot 
 them down at the spring. 
 
 "The decision was soon made. A few of the 
 boldest declared their readiness to brave the danger, 
 and the }^ounger and more timid rallying in the 
 rear of these veterans, they all marched down in a 
 body to the spring, within point blank shot of more 
 than five hundred Indian warriors ! Some of the 
 girls could not help betraying symptoms of terror ; 
 but the married women, in general, moved with a 
 steadiness and composure that completely deceived 
 the Indians. Not a shot was fired. The party were 
 permitted to fill their buckets, one after another, 
 v/ithout interruption ; and although their steps be- 
 came quicker and quicker, on their return, and vdieu 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 
 
 113 
 
 near the fort, degenerated into a ratlier unmilitary 
 celerity, with some httle crowding in passing the 
 gate, yet not more than one-fifth of the water was 
 spilled, and the eyes of the yonngest had not dilated 
 to more than double their ordinary size." * 
 
 • M'Clung's Sketches of Western Adventure. 
 8 
 
 
MES. DAYIESS. 
 
 *Tis late before 
 
 The brave despair. 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 Samuel Daviess was an early settler at a place 
 called Gilmer's Lick, in Lincoln county, Kentucky. 
 Li the month of August, 1782, while a few rods 
 from his house, he was attacked early one morning 
 by an Indian; and attempting to get within doors, 
 he found that his house was already occupied by 
 other Indians. Pursued by his foe, he ran into a 
 cornfield and lay concealed till the savage gave up 
 the chase and returned to the house. He then ran 
 to his brother's station, fi^^e miles off, gave the alarm, 
 and was soon returning with ^ye stout, well armed 
 faen. 
 
 Meanwhile the Indians — four in number — who 
 had entered the house while the fifth was in pursuit 
 Df Mr. Daviess, routed Mrs. Daviess and the chil- 
 dren from their beds, and they soon understood 
 chat they must take up a line of march — they knew 
 aot whith-sr. As soon as she was dressed, Mrs. 
 Daviess " commenced showing the Indians one arti- 
 cle of clothing and then another, which pleased them 
 verj much ; and in that way delayed them at the 
 
THE INDIAN HORSE THIEF. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 115 
 
 house nearly two hours. In the mean time, the In- 
 dian who had been in pursuit of her husband 
 returned, with his hands stained with poke berries, 
 which he held up, and with some violent gesturea 
 and waving of his tomahawk, attempted to indflcc 
 the belief, that the stain on his hands was the blood 
 of her husband, and that he had killed him. She 
 was enabled at once to discover the deception, and 
 instead of producing any alarm on her part, she 
 was satisfied that her husband had escaped unin- 
 jured. 
 
 "After the savages had plundered the house of 
 every thing that they could conveniently carry off 
 with them, they started, taking Mrs. Daviess and 
 her children — seven in number — as prisoners, 
 along with them. Some of the children were too 
 yomig to travel as fast as the Indians wished, and 
 discovering, as she believed, their intention to kill 
 such of them as could not conveniently travel, she 
 made the two oldest boys carry them on their backs. 
 The Indians, in starting from the house, were very 
 careful to leave no signs of the direction they had 
 taken, not even permitting the children to break a 
 twig or weed as they passed along. They had net 
 o'one far before an Indian drew his knife and cut 
 off a few inches of Mrs. Daviess' dress, so that 
 she would not be interrupted in traveling. 
 
 "Mrs. Daviess was a woman of cool, deliberate 
 courage, and accustomed to handle the gun, so that 
 phe could shoot well, as many of the women were 
 in the habit of doing in those days. She had con- 
 
116 NUBLE DEEDS 
 
 templated, as a last resort, that if not rescued in 
 the course of the day, when night came on and 
 the Indians had fallen asleep, she would deliver 
 herself and children by Ijilling as many of the In- 
 dies as she could — thinking that in a night attack 
 as many of them as remained would most probably 
 run off." * 
 
 Mr. Daviess and his comrades reaching the house 
 and finding it empty, hastened on in pursuit of 
 the Indians. They had gone but a few miles before 
 * they overtook the retreating party. Two Indian 
 spies in the rear, first discovered the pursuers, and 
 running on, overtook the three others, with the 
 prisoners, and knocked down and scalped, though 
 they did not kill, the oldest boy. At that moment 
 the pursuers fired at the Indians, but missed. The 
 latter were now alarmed and confused, and Mrs. 
 Daviess, taking advantage of this circumstance, 
 jumped into' a sink hole with her infant in her 
 arms ; and the Indians fleeing, every child was 
 saved. 
 
 " Kentucky, in its early days, like most new coun* 
 tries, was occasionally troubled by men of abandoned 
 character, who lived by stealing the property of 
 others, and, after committing their depredations, 
 retired to their hiding places, thereby eluding the 
 operation of the law. One of these marauders, a 
 man of desperate character, who had committed ex- 
 tensive thefts from Mr. Daviess, as v/ell as from his 
 ^^ . . __ 
 
 * Collhis's Historical Sketches of Kentucky 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 117 
 
 neighbors, was pursued by Daviess and a party 
 whose property he had taken, in order to bring 
 him to justice. While the party were in pursuit, 
 the suspected individual, not knowing any one was 
 l)ursuing him, came to the house of Daviess, armed 
 with his gun and tomahawk — no person being at 
 home but Mrs. Daviess and her children. After he 
 had stepped into the house, Mrs. Daviess asked him 
 if he would drink something — and having set a 
 bottle of whiskey upon the table, requested him to 
 help himself. The fellow, not suspecting any dan--^ 
 ger, set his gun up by the door, and while drinking, 
 Mrs. Daviess picked up his gun, and placing herself 
 in the door, had the gun cocked and leveled upon 
 him by the time he turned around, and in a pe- 
 remptory manner ordered him to take a seat, or she 
 would shoot him. Struck with terror and alarm, he 
 asked what he had done. She told him he had 
 stolen her husband's property and that she intended 
 to take care of him herself. In that condition she 
 held him a prisoner, until the party of men re- 
 turned and took him into their possession. * 
 
 * Collins. 
 
A KENTUCKY AMAZON. 
 
 Tliis is true courage. 
 
 Whitehead's Roman Father, 
 
 Dm^ing the summer of 1787, writes Mr. McClung, 
 in Ms Sketches of "Western Adventure, "The house 
 of Mr. John Merrill, of Nelson county, Kentucky, 
 was attacked by the Indians, and defended with sin- 
 gular address and good fortune. Merrill was alarmed 
 by the barking of a dog about midnight, and upon 
 opening the door in order to ascertain the cause of 
 the disturbance, he received the fire of six or seven 
 Indians, by which one arm and one thigh were bro- 
 ken. He instantly sank upon the floor, and called 
 upon his wife to close the door. This had scarcely 
 been done when it was violently assailed by the 
 tomahawks of the enemy, and a large breach soon 
 effected. Mrs. Merrill, however, being a perfect araa- 
 zon, both in strength and courage, guarded it with 
 an axe, and successively killed or badly wounded 
 four of the enemy as they attempted to force their 
 way into the cabin. 
 M "The Indians ascended the roof, and attempted 
 to enter by way of the chimney; but here again 
 
OF AMEKlCAJSr WOMEN. IJU 
 
 they were met by the same determined enemy. Mrs. 
 Merrill seized the only feather bed which the cabin 
 afforded, and hastily ripping it open, poured its con- 
 tents upon the fire. A furious blaze and stifling 
 smoke instantly ascended the chimney, and brought 
 down two of the enemy, who lay for a few moments 
 at the mercy of the lady. Seizing the axe, she 
 quickly dispatched them, and was instantly after- 
 wards summoned to the door, where the only re- 
 maining savage now appeared, endeavoring to effect 
 an entrance, while Mrs. Merrill was engaged at the 
 chimney. He soon received a gash in the cheek, 
 which compelled him, with a loud yell, to relinquish 
 his purpose, and return hastily to Chillicothe, where, 
 from the report of a prisoner, he gave an exagge- 
 rated account of the fierceness, strength, and cour- 
 age of the ' long knife squaw ! ' " 
 
HEEOISM AT ESTOTS SETTLEMENT. 
 
 Courage alone can save us. . 
 
 • SOUTHEY. 
 
 The account of the Indians' attack on the Innis 
 settlement, near Frankfort, Kentucky, in April, 1792, 
 has been differently related by different writers. The 
 most reliable account is doubtless that given by the 
 Rev. Abraham Cook, a minister of the Baptist de- 
 nomination and the brother of Jesse and Hosea Cook, 
 whose wives were the heroines of the settlement. 
 The attack was made on the twenty-eighth of the 
 month, by about one hundred Indians, and at three 
 points almost simultaneously. The first onset was 
 upon the Cooks who lived in cabins close together, 
 and where was displayed a degree of intrepidity 
 rarely matched. 
 
 " The brothers were near their cabins, one engaged 
 in shearing sheep, the other lookiug on. The sharp 
 crack of rifles was the first intimation of the prox- 
 imity of the Indians ; and that fire was fatal to the 
 brothers — the elder fell dead, and the younger was 
 'mortally wounded, but enabled to reach the cabiM. 
 
OF AMEEICAN WOMEN. 121 
 
 The two Mrs. Cook, with three children — two whites 
 and one black — were instantly collected in the house, 
 and the door, a very strong one, made secure. The 
 Indians, unable to enter, discharged their rifles at the 
 door, but without injury, as the balls did not pene- 
 trate through the thick boards of which it was con- 
 structed. They then attempted to cut it down with 
 their tomahawks, but with no better success. While 
 these things occurred without, there was deep sor 
 row, mingled with fearless determination and high 
 resolve within. The younger Cook, mortally wounded, 
 immediately the door was barred, sank down on the 
 floor, and breathed his last; and the two Mrs. Cook 
 were left the sole defenders of the cabin, with the 
 three children. There was a rifle in the house, but 
 no balls could be found. In this extremity, one of 
 the women got hold of a musket ball, and placing 
 it between her teeth, actually bit it into two pieces. 
 "With one she instantly loaded the rifle. The Indians, 
 failing in their attempts to cut down the door, had 
 retired a few paces in front, doubtless to consult 
 upon their future operations. One seated himself 
 upon a log, apparently apprehending no danger from 
 within. Observing him, Mrs. Cook took aim from a 
 narrow aperture and fired, when the Indian gave a 
 loud yell, bounded high in the air, and fell dead. 
 This infmiated the savages, who threatened — for 
 they could speak English — to bum the house and 
 all the inmates. Several speedily climbed to the top 
 of the cabin, and kindled a fire on the boards of 
 the roof. The devouring element began to take ef 
 
122 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 feet, and with less determined and resolute courage 
 within, the certain destruction of the cabin and the 
 death of the inmates, must have been the consequence. 
 But the self possession and intrepidity of these Spar- 
 tan females were equal to the occasion. One of them 
 instantly ascended to the loft, and the other handed 
 her water, with which she extinguished the fire. 
 Again and again the roof was fired, and as often 
 extinguished. The water failing, the undaunted wo- 
 men called for some eggs, which were broken and 
 the contents thrown upon the fire, for a time hold- 
 ing the flames at bay. Their next resource was the 
 bloody waistcoat of the husband and brother-in- 
 law, who lay dead upon the floor. The blood with 
 which this was profusely saturated, checked the pro- 
 gress of the flames — but, as they appeared speedily 
 to be gathering strength, another, and the last expe- 
 dient .... proved successful. The savage foe 
 yielded, and the fruitful expedients of female cour- 
 age triumphed. One Indian, in bitter disappointment, 
 fired at his unseen enemy through the boards, but 
 did not injure her, when the whole immediately de- 
 scended from the roof. 
 
 "About the time the attack commenced, a young 
 man named McAndre, escaped on horseback, in view 
 of the Indians, who, it was supposed, would give the 
 alarm to the older neighboring settlements. As soon 
 as they descended from the house top, a few climbed 
 some contiguous trees, and instituted a sharp look 
 out. While in the trees, one of them fired a second 
 ball into the loft of the cabin, which cut to pieces 
 
O? AMERICAN WOMEN. 
 
 123 
 
 a bundle of yarn hanging near the head of Mrs. 
 Cook, but without doing further injury. Soon after, 
 they threw the body of the dead Indian into the ad- 
 jacent creek, and precipitately fled." 
 
BOLD EXPLOIT AT TAMPICO. 
 
 A thousand hearts are great within my bosom ; 
 
 Advance our standai'ds. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Rocks have been shaken from their solid base ; 
 But what shall move a dauntless soul? 
 
 Joanna Baillie. 
 
 At the capture of Tampico, wliicli took place on 
 the fourteenth of JSTovember, 1846, a noteworthy act 
 was performed hj a lady, whose patriotism and da- 
 ring should not be forgotten. She not only gave 
 Commodore Connor full information in regard to the 
 defence of the place, with a plan of the harbor, 
 town and forts, but when the squadron was approach- 
 ing, though opposed by the city council and even 
 menaced, she hoisted the American flag and per- 
 sisted in waving it beneath the very eye of the 
 ayuntamiento! This intrepid woman was Mrs. Ann 
 Chase, wife of the American Consul. 
 
THE COL(.)NEL AND illfi DAUGHTER. 
 
DICEY LAKGSTOK. 
 
 Thou soul of love and bravery 1 
 
 MOORK 
 
 Dicey Langston was the daughter of Solomon 
 Langston, of Laurens district, South Carolina. She 
 possessed an intrepid spirit, which is highly service- 
 able in times of emergency, and which, as she 
 lived in the days of the Eevolution, she had more 
 than one opportunity to display. Situated in the 
 midst of tories, and being patriotically inquisitive, 
 she often learned by accident, or discovered by 
 strategy, the plottings so common in those days, 
 against the whigs. Such intelligence she was ac 
 customed to communicate to the friends of freedom 
 on the opj)Osite side of the Ennoree river. 
 
 Learning one time that a band of loyalists — 
 known in those parts as the "Bloody scout" — were 
 about to fall upon the "Elder settlement," a place 
 where a brother of hers and other friends were resi- 
 ding, she resolved to warn them of their danger. 
 To do this she must hazard her own life. But off 
 she started, alone, in the darkness of the night; 
 traveled several miles through the woods, and over 
 
126 • NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 marshes and across cree^ through a country where 
 foot-logs and bridges were then unknown ; came to 
 the Tyger, a rapid and deep stream, into which she 
 plunged and waded till the water was up to her 
 neck; she then became bewildered, and zigzagged 
 the channel for some time; reached the opposite 
 shore at length — for a helping Hand was beneath, 
 a kind Providence guiding her : — hastened on ; 
 reached the settlement, and her brother and the 
 whole community were safe ! 
 
 She was returning one day from another settle 
 ment of whigs — in the Spartanburg district, when 
 a company of tories met her and questioned hei 
 in regard ic the neighborhood she had just left; 
 but she refused to communicate the desired infor- 
 mation. The leader of the band then held a pistol 
 to her breast, and threatened to shoot her if she 
 did not make the wished for disclosure. " Shoot me 
 if you dare! I will not tell you!" was her daunt- 
 less reply, as she opened a long handkerchief that 
 covered her neck and bosom, thus manifesting a 
 willingness to receive the contents of the pistol, if 
 the officer insisted on disclosures or life. The das- 
 tard, enraged at her defying movement, was in the 
 act of firing, at which moment one of the soldiers 
 threw up the hand holding the weapon, and the 
 cowerless heart of the girl was permitted to beat 
 on. 
 
 The brothers of Dicey were no less patnotic than 
 she ; and they having, by their active services on 
 the side of freedom, greatly displeased t^e loyalists. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 127 
 
 these latler were determined to be revenged. A 
 desperate band accordingly went to the house of 
 their father, and finding the sons absent, they were 
 about to wreak their vengeance on the old man, 
 whom they hated for the sons' sake. With this in- 
 tent one of the party drew a pistol ; but just as it 
 was aimed at the breast of her aged and infirm 
 father. Dicey rushed between the two, and though 
 the ruffian bade her get out of his way or receive 
 in her own breast the contents of the pistol, she 
 regarded not his threats, but flung her arms around 
 her father's neck and declared she would receive 
 the ball first, if the weapon must be discharged. 
 Such fearlessness and willingness to offer her own 
 life for the sake of her parent, softened the heart 
 of the "bloody scout," and Mr. Langston lived 
 to see his noble daughter perform other heroic 
 deeds. 
 
 One time her brother James, in his absence, sent 
 to the house for a gun which he had left in her 
 care, with orders for her to deliver it to no one 
 except by his direction. On reaching the house 
 one of the company who where directed to call for 
 it, made known their errand, whereupon she brought 
 and was about to deliver the weapon. At this 
 moment it occurred to her that she had not deman- 
 ded the countersign agreed on between herself and 
 brother. With the gun still in her hand, she looked 
 the company sternly in the face, and remarking that 
 they wore a suspicious look, called for the coun- 
 tersign. Hereupon one of them, in jest, told her 
 
128 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 Bhe was too tardy in her requirements ; that both 
 the gun and its holder were in their possession. 
 "Do you think so," she boldly asked, as she 
 cocked the disputed weapon and aimed it at the 
 speaker. "If the gun is in your possession," she 
 added, " take charge of it ! " Her appearance indica- 
 ted that she was in earnest, and the countersign 
 was given without further delay. A hearty laugh 
 on the part of the " liberty men," ended the cere- 
 mony. 
 
EEBECCA MOTTE. 
 
 We can make our lives sublime. 
 
 Longfellow 
 
 During the Hevoliitionarj war, while Fort Motte, 
 situated on Congaree river, in South Carolina, was 
 in the hands of the British, in order to effect its 
 suA-ender, it became necessary to bum a large 
 mansion standing near the centre of the trench. 
 The house was the property of Mrs. Motte. Lieut. 
 Colonel Lee communicated to her the contemplated 
 work of destruction with painful reluctance, but her 
 smiles, half anticipating his proposal, showed, at 
 mce, that she was willing to sacrifice her property 
 jf she could thereby aid in the least degree towards 
 the expulsion of the enemy and the salvation of 
 the land. The reply f^he made to the proposal was 
 that she was "gratified with the opportunity of 
 contributing to the good of her country, and should 
 view the approaching scene with delight ! " * 
 
 *Mb,s. Bbewtox, — since Foster — one of the most amiable and en- 
 lightened of the whig ladies, was an inmate of Mrs. Motte*s family 
 at the time of the destruction of her house. Meeting with her shortly 
 after the sie^iing o^ the preliminary articles of peace at Philadelphia, 
 
 »7 
 
130 . NOBLE DEEDS * 
 
 The husband of this noble-hearted widow had so 
 involved himself by securities for friends, that after 
 the struggle for Independence was over, it was 
 impossible for her to immediately meet all demands 
 against the estate. She, however, resolved that 
 they should some day be liquidated — that, life 
 and health being continued long enough, all obliga- 
 tions of her husband's contracting should be good 
 against herself. She purchased a large tract of rice 
 land on credit, and by industry and economy was 
 able, in a short time, to pay the old demands, and 
 lived to accumulate a handsome property. She re- 
 minds us of Solomon's picture of the virtuous wo- 
 man : " She consider eth a field, and buyeth it : with 
 the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard-.' 
 
 . . . " She looketh well to the ways of hei 
 household, and eateth not of the bread of idle- 
 ness." 
 
 I inquired — " How it had happened, that she, a helpless, unprotec- 
 ted widow, without anv charge of improper conduct, haa so far 
 incurred the enmity of the British commanders, as to have been ar- 
 rested without ceremony, and hurried unprepared, into exile." She 
 answered — " That she knew no act of hers which had merited such 
 ungentlemanly and inhuman treatment." Entering, however, into 
 conversation relative to the siege and surrender of Fort Motte, she 
 gave at once a clue to the transaction. While the American forces 
 were at a distance. Major M'Pherson, the commander of the post, 
 suflfered Mrs. Motte and her family to remain, and an apartment 
 was allowed for their accommodation. But when the post at Thomp- 
 son's, but a little removed from him, was attacked and carried, 
 anticipating the fate which awaited him, immediate removal was not 
 only advised, but insisted on. At the moment of departure, Mrs. 
 Brewton seeing a quiver of arrows, which had been presented to Mr. 
 Motte by a favorite African, said to her friend, "I will take these 
 
OF AIvIERICAN WOMEN. 131 
 
 with me, to prevent tJieir destruction by the soldiers." With the 
 quiver in her hands, she was passing the gate, wlien Major M'Pher- 
 son, drawing forth a shaft, and applying the point to his finger, 
 said, "what have you here, Mrs. Brewton ? " "For God's sake be 
 careful," she replied " these arrows are poisoned." Tlie ladies imme- 
 diately passed on to the out-house, which they were now to inhabit. 
 In the siege which directly followed, when the destruction of the 
 house was determined upon, and missiles eagerly sought for by 
 Lieutenant Colonel Lee for conveying the fire to the shingles, these 
 arrows being remembered, were presented by Mrs. Motte, with a 
 wish for the happy accomplishment of the end proposed. It was 
 afterwards known, that the first arrow missed its aim, and fell at 
 the feet of the commander, who taking, it up, with strong expres- 
 sions of anger, exclaimed, " I thank you, Mi-s. Brewton." The 
 second arrow took effect, and set fire to the roof, when the brisk 
 discharge of a six pounder being maintained by Captain Finley, in 
 the direction of the stair-case, every effort to extinguish it proved 
 fniitless, until, from the apprehension of the roof falling in, the 
 garrison were compelled to surrender at discretion. General Greene 
 airiving soon after, paid to Major M'Phei*son the ti'ibute of applause 
 due to his excellent defence, declaring, "that such gallantry could 
 not fail to procure for him a high increase of reputation." This 
 compliment, however, does not appear to have soothed the mortified 
 soldier ; for, walking immediately up to Mrs. Brewton, he said, " to 
 you madam, I owe this disgrace; it would have been more chari- 
 table to have allowed me to perish by poison, than to be thus 
 compelled to surrender my post to tlie enemy." This speech 
 alone, accounts for the enmity against Mrs. Brewton. — [ Knapp*s 
 American Anecdotes. 
 
Al^OTHEK SACKIFICE FOE FKEEDOM. 
 
 A patriot's birth-riglit thou may'st claim. 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 The subject of the following anecdote was a sister 
 of General Woodhull, and was bom at Brookhaven, 
 Long Island, in December, 1Y40. Her husband was 
 a member of the Provincial Convention which met in 
 May, 1Y75, and of the Convention which was called 
 two years after, to frame the first state constitution. 
 
 While Judge "William Smith was in the Provincial 
 Congress, his lady was met, at a place called Middle 
 Island, by Major Benjamin Tallmadge, who was then 
 on his march across Long Island. He told her he was 
 on his way to her house to capture the force then pos- 
 sessing Fort St. George, and that he might be obliged 
 to burn or otherwise destroy her dwelling-house and 
 other buildings in accomplishing this object. Ready 
 to make any sacrifice for the good of her bleeding 
 country, she promptly assured the Major that the 
 buildings were at his disposal, to destroy or not, as 
 efforts to dislodge the enemy might require. 
 
A PATKIOTIC DOISTATIOK 
 
 Large charity doth never soil. 
 
 But only whitens soft white hands. — Lowell. 
 
 "When General Greene was retreating through the 
 Carolinas, after the battle of the Cowpens, and while 
 at Salisbury, ItTorth Carolina, he put up at a hotel, the 
 landlady of which was Mrs. Elizabeth Steele. A de- 
 tachment of Americans had just had a skirmish with 
 the British under Comwallis at the Catawba ford, and 
 were defeated and dispersed ; and when the wounded 
 were brought to the hotel, the General no doubt felt 
 somewhat discouraged, for the fate of the south and 
 perhaps of the country seemed to hang on the result 
 of this memorable retreat. Added to his other 
 troubles was that of being penniless ; and Mrs. Steele, 
 learning this fact by accident, and ready to do any 
 thing in her power to further the cause of freedom, 
 took him aside and drew from under her apron two 
 bags of specie. Presenting them to him she gene 
 rously said, " Take these, for you will want them, and 
 I can do without them."* 
 
 * Never did relief come at a more propitious moment ; nor would it 
 be straining conjecture to suppose that he resumed his journey with his 
 spirits cheered and brightened by this touching proof of woman's devo- 
 tion to the cause of her country. [Greene's Life of N"athaniel Greene. 
 
"THE LITTLE BLACK-EYED KEBEL." 
 
 Some there are 
 By their good deeds exalted 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 Mary Redmond, the daughter of a patriot of Phila- 
 delphia of some local distinction, had many relatives 
 who were loyalists. These were accustomed to call 
 her " the little black-eyed rebel," so ready was she to 
 assist women whose husbands were fighting for free- 
 dom, in procuring intelligence. "The dispatches 
 were usually sent from their friends by a boy who 
 carried them stitched in the back of his coat. He 
 came into the city bringing provisions to market. 
 One morning when there was some reason to fear he 
 was suspected, and his movements were watched by 
 the enemy, Mary undertook to get the papers from 
 him in safety. She went, as usual, to the market, and 
 in a pretended game of romps, threw her shawl over 
 the boy's head and secured the prize. She hastened 
 with the papers to her anxious friends, who read them 
 by stealth, after the windows had been carefully 
 closed." 
 
OV AMERICAN WOMEN. 
 
 1 
 
 35 
 
 When the whig women in her neighborhood heard 
 of Burgoyne's surrender, and were exulting in secret, 
 the cunning little "rebel," pi-udently refraining from 
 any open demonstration of joy, " put her head up the 
 chimney and gave a shout for Gates 1 " 
 
 i 
 
A BEI^EYOLEISTT QUAKEKESS * 
 
 ' ' How few, like thee, inquire the wretclied out. 
 
 And court the offices of soft humanity 1 
 
 RowE. 
 
 Charity Hodman was bom in Newport, Rliode 
 Island, in the* year 1Y65. Her father was a sea-cap- 
 tain, and died at Honduras while she was in infancy. 
 She married Thomas Rotch, of Nantucket, Massachu- 
 setts, on the sixth of June, 1790. Soon afterwards 
 the Kotch family removed to New Bedford, where 
 they have since distinguished themselves by their 
 energy and uprightness of character, and their success 
 in the mercantile business, being extensively engaged 
 in the whale-rishery. Of some of them, as traffickers, 
 it may be said, as it was of the merchants of Tyre in 
 the days of her glory : " they are among the honor 
 able of the earth." 
 
 About the year 1801, Mrs. Rotch removed with hei 
 husband to Hp^rtford, Connecticut, where she remained 
 
 * Some of the facts embodied in this article were gathered by the 
 author while on a Yisit to Massillou, Ohio, in the summer of 1847, and 
 were communicated to the public at that time through the columns cf 
 the Western Literary Messenger ; others were lately and very obligingly 
 furnished by Dv. William Bo wen, of that place. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 137 
 
 till 1811. She then, in a feeble state of health, and 
 for its improvement, accompanied her husband on a 
 jonmey through Ohio, and other parts of the West. 
 The mildness of the winter was favorable to her con- 
 stitution, and, restored to comfortable health, she 
 returned to Hartford in the early part of the next 
 summer. The following ITovember she removed to 
 Kendol, in Stark county, Ohio, near the site of the 
 present village of JVIassillon. 
 
 There the mind of Mrs. Eotch, cooperating with the 
 long-cherished wishes of her heart, originated and 
 matured plans for the establishment of a " school for 
 orphan and destitute children." Having traveled 
 much, she had made extensive observations ; and with 
 an eye always open to the condition and wants of 
 human kind, she early and often felt the force of a 
 remark once made to her by an English friend : " That 
 there were a great many children wasted in this coun- 
 try" — a painful truth, but no less applicable to Great 
 Britain than to the United States. 
 
 Her husband died in 1823, and bequeathed to her, 
 during life, his large and entire estate. His personal 
 property was left in her hands to be disposed of as her 
 philanthropic heart might dictate. This formed the 
 basis of the school-fund which she left, and which, 
 four or five years after her death, which occurred on 
 the sixth of August, 1824, amounted to twenty thou- 
 sand dollars. The interest of this sum has since pur- 
 chased a farm of one hundred and eighty-five acres, 
 one and a half miles from the village of Massillon, and 
 erected, at a cost of ^Oi thousand dollars, a large 
 
138 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 brick edifice for educational and dwelling purposes.^ 
 wliich has been open seven years and wbicb sustains 
 forty pupils. The real and personal estate of the in- 
 stitution, is now estimated at thirty-five thousand dol- 
 lars. 
 
 A class of ten pupils enter annually and remain 
 four years. The school is established on the manual 
 labor plan; and the boys are thoroughly instructed 
 in the art of husbandry, and the girls in culinary du- 
 ties and the manufacture of their own wearing apparel. 
 Children enter between the ages of ten and fourteen, 
 hence the youngest leave as advanced in life as their 
 fifteenth year, a period when their habits of industry 
 and their moral principles usually become too weli 
 established to be easily changed. 
 
 This school, founded by the benevolence of a single 
 individual — a devout, yet modest and quiet member 
 of the Society of Friends — is destined to become a 
 source of inestimable blessings. Every half century, 
 five hundred otherwise neglected plants in the garden 
 of humanity, will there be pruned and nurtured, and 
 strengthened for the storms of life; and many of them 
 will doubtless be fitted to bear fruit here to the glory 
 of God, and be finally transplanted to bloom in eternal 
 youth in the gardens above. 
 
 The offspring of Christian philanthropy, the school 
 will stand as a lasting memorial of woman's w^ortb. 
 The highest ambition of its founder was to he a bles- 
 sing to those who should come after her; and it may 
 be said that while she did not live in vain, neither did 
 she die in vain. Her death threw a legacy into the 
 
OF AMEEIOAN WOMEN. 139 
 
 lap o^ orphanage, the benignant influence of which 
 will long be felt. 
 
 The grave of Mrs. Rotch is overlooked by the monu- 
 ment of her munificence, but no marble nor enduring 
 object marks the spot. Yirtues like hers neither crave 
 nor need chiseled words of praise ; they are engraved 
 on the hearts of the succored, to be remembered while 
 those hearts continue to beat-, and the feet of be- 
 friended children will keep a patli open to the gravt) 
 of their foster-mother, for ages. 
 
A PIOITEEE IN BTYNDAY SCHOOLS * 
 
 — Doubtless uuto iiiee is given 
 A life that bears immortal fruit 
 In sucb great offices as suit 
 The full-grown energies of heaven. 
 
 Tennyson's In Memoeiam. 
 
 The Ohio Company, which was organized in Bos- 
 ton in the year 1787, built a stockade fort during 
 the next two years, at Marietta, and named it 
 Campus Martins. The year it was completed, the 
 Kev. Daniel Storey, a preacher at Worcester, Mas- 
 sachusetts, was sent out as a chaplain. He acted as 
 an evangelist till 1797, when he became the pastor 
 of a Congregational church which he had been in- 
 strumental in collecting in Marietta and the adjoining 
 towns, and which was organized the preceding year. 
 He held that relation till the spring of 1804. Pro- 
 bably he was the first Protestant minister whose voice 
 was heard in the vast wilderness lying to the north- 
 west of the Ohio river. 
 
 In the garrison at Marietta was witnessed the 
 
 * The facts contained in this article we find in a series of papers, 
 by S. P. Hildreth, Esq., published in ** The American Pioneer," in 
 1842. 
 
OF AMERIOAIT WOMEN. 141 
 
 formation and successful operation of one of the 
 first Sunday schools in the United States. Its ori- 
 ginator, superintendent and sole teacher, was Mrs. 
 Andrew Lake, an estimable lady from 'New York. 
 Every Sabbath, after "Parson Storey" had finished 
 his public ser\dces, she collected as many of the 
 children at her house as would attend, and heard 
 them recite verses from the Scriptures, and taught 
 them the "Westminster catechism. Simple in her 
 manner of teaching and affable and kind in her 
 disposition, she was able to interest her pupils — ■ 
 usually about twenty in number — and to win their af- 
 fections to herself, to the school, and, subsequently, 
 in some instances, to the Saviour. A few, at least, 
 of the little children that used to sit on rude 
 benches, low stools and the tops of meal bags, and 
 listen to her sacred instructions and earnest ad- 
 monitions, have doubtless ere this became pupils, 
 with her, in the "school of Christ" above. 
 
THE WOMEN OF WYOMma. 
 
 The guardians of the land. 
 
 Holmes. 
 
 Justice and gratitude, writes Miner,* "demand 
 a tribute to the praiseworthy spirit of the wires and 
 daughters of Wyoming. While their husbands and 
 fathers were on public duty, they cheerfully assumed 
 a large portion of the labor which females could 
 do. They assisted to plant, made hay, husked and 
 garnered the corn. As the settlement was mainly 
 dependent on its own resources for powder, Mr. 
 Hollenback caused to be brought up the river a 
 pounder; and the women took up their floors, dug 
 out the earth, put it in casks, and run water through 
 it, — as ashes are bleached : — then took ashes, in 
 another cask, and made ley — mixed the water from 
 the earth with weak ley, boiled it, set it to cool, 
 and the saltpetre rose to the top. Charcoal and 
 sulphur were then used, and powder was produced 
 for the public defence." 
 
 * History of Wyoming, page 212. 
 
MAHY GOULD. 
 
 Far rung the groves and gleamed the midnight grass, 
 With flambeau, javelin and naked arm; 
 As warriors wheeled their culverins of brass, 
 Sprung from the woods a bold athletic mass, 
 
 Whom virtue fires and liberty combines. 
 
 Campbell. 
 
 Such is the power of mighty love. 
 
 Drydew. 
 
 Early in tlie evening of the third day of July, 
 17Y8 — the date of the memorable "Wyoming mas- 
 sacre — Mrs. Mary Gould, wife of James Gould, 
 with the other females remaining in the village of 
 "Wyoming, sought safety in the fort. In the haste 
 and confusion attending this act, she left a boy of 
 hers about four years old, behind. Obeying the in- 
 stincts of a mother, and turning a deaf ear to the 
 admonitions of friends, she started off on a perilous 
 search for the missing one. It was dark; she was 
 alone, and the foe was lurking around; but the 
 agonies of death could not exceed her agonies of 
 suspense; so she hastened on. She traversed the 
 *ields which, but a few hours before, 
 
 "Were trampled by the hurrying crowd;" 
 
 where 
 
144 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 " — fiery hearts and armed hands 
 Encountered in the battle cloud,*' 
 
 and where unarmed hands were now resting on cold 
 and motionless hearts. After a search of between 
 one and two hours, she found her child on the 
 bank of the river, sporting with a little band of 
 piajmates. Clasping the jewel in her arms, she 
 Lurried back and reached the fort in safety. 
 
THE MOTHEE OF PRESIDENT POLK. 
 
 Holy as heaven a mother's tender love! 
 The love of many prayers, and many tears. 
 Which changes not with dim, declining yeara 
 
 Mrs. !N"oeton. 
 
 The late President Polk's mother, who died at 
 Columbia, Tennessee, in the winter of 1851-2, was a 
 member of the Presbyterian church, a highly exem- 
 plary Christian, and a faithful mother. The lessons 
 which she taught her son in youth, were not forgotten 
 when he had arrived at manhood, and risen to the 
 highest office in the gift of a free and sovereign people. 
 A single anecdote will show the abiding recollection 
 and influence of her teachings. 
 
 A gentleman, who once visited Mr. Polk at the 
 White House, remarked to him that his respect for 
 the Sabbath was highly gratifying to the religious 
 sentiment of the country ; whereupon he made the fol- 
 lowing reply: "I was taught by a pious mother to 
 fear God, and keep his commandments, and I trust 
 that no cares of a government of my own, will ever 
 tempt me to forget what I owe to the government 
 of God," ■ 
 
TEIALS OF A PATRIOT 
 
 Press on ! if foi-tune play tliee false 
 To-day, to-morrow she '11 be tme. 
 
 Park Benjamin 
 
 During the latter part of the Revolution, Thomaa 
 McCalla lived in Chester district, South Carolina. 
 He removed thither from Pennsylvania, with his 
 young wife, in 1778. He was a whole-hearted whig ; 
 served in the American army before moving to the 
 south, and again enlisted soon after reaching his new 
 home. ' He was in all the engagements attending 
 Sumter's operations against the enemy, till the seven- 
 teenth of August, 1780, when, by permission, he went 
 to visit his family. A short time afterwards he again 
 joined the fighting men, but was almost immediately 
 taken prisoner, sent to Camden, thrown into jail and 
 threatened daily with hanging. The persevering and 
 heroic endeavors of his affectionate and patriotic wife, 
 to obtain his release, are detailed in the following inte- 
 resting manner by the author of the Women of the 
 E-evolution : 
 
 While this brave man was languishing in prison, 
 expecting death from day to day, his wife remained 
 in the most unhappy state of suspense. For about a 
 
Of AMERICAN WOMEN. 147 
 
 month she was unable to obtain any tidings of him. 
 The rumor of Sumter's surprise, and that of Steel, 
 came to her ears ; she visited the places where those 
 disasters had occurred, and sought for some trace of 
 him, but without success. She inquired, in an agony 
 of anxiety, of the women who had been to Charlotte 
 for the purpose of carrying clothes or provisions to 
 their husbands, brothers, or fathers, not knowing but 
 that he had gone thither with the soldiers ; but none 
 could give her the least infoi-mation. Imagination 
 may depict the harrowing scenes that must have 
 passed, when females returning to their homes and 
 children after carrying aid to the soldiers, were met by 
 such inquiries from those who were uncertain as to 
 the fate of their kindred. To these hapless sufferers 
 no consolation availed, and too often w^as their sus- 
 pense terminated by more afflicting certainty. 
 
 In the midst of Mrs. McCalla's distress, and before 
 she had gained any information, she was called to 
 another claim on her anxiety ; her children took the 
 small-pox. John was very ill for nine days with the 
 disease, and his mother thought every day wou:ld be 
 his last. During this terrible season of alarai, while 
 her mind was distracted by cares, she had to depend 
 altogether upon herself, for she saw but one among her 
 neighbors. All the families in the vicinity were visited 
 with the disease, and to many it proved fatal. As 
 soon as her child was so far recovered as to be consi- 
 dered out of danger, Mrs. McCalla made preparations 
 to go to Camden. She felt convinced that it was her 
 duty to do so, for she clung to the hope that she might 
 
148 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 there learn something of her husband, or even find 
 him among the prisoners. 
 
 "With her to resolve was to act, and having set her 
 house in order, she was in the saddle long before day, 
 taking the old Charleston road leading down on the 
 west side of the Catawba river. The mountain gap 
 on "Wateree creek was passed ere the sun rose, and bj 
 two o'clock she had crossed the river, passing the 
 guard there stationed, and entered Camden. Pressing 
 on with fearless determination, she passed the guard, 
 and desiring to be conducted to the presence of Lord 
 Hawdon, was escorted by Major Doyle to the head- 
 quarters of that commander. His Lordship then 
 occupied a large, ancient looking house on the east 
 side of the main street. The old site of the town is 
 now in part deserted, and that building left standing 
 alone some four hundred yards from any other, as if 
 the memories associated with it had rendered the 
 neighborhood undesirable. It was here that haughty 
 and luxurious nobleman fixed his temporary residence, 
 " sitting as a monarch," while so many true-hearted 
 unfortunates, whose fate hung on his will, were lan- 
 guishing out their lives in prison,* or atoning for their 
 patriotism on the scaffold. 
 
 Into the presence of this august personage Mrs. 
 McCalla was conducted by the British major. Her 
 impression at first sight was favorable ; he was a fine 
 looking young man, with a countenance not unprepos- 
 sessing, which we may suppose was eagerly searched 
 for the traces of human sympathy by one who felt that 
 all her hopes depended on him. His aspect gave her 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 149 
 
 Boine encouragement, and being desired to explain the 
 object of her visit, she pleaded her cause with the elo- 
 quence of nature and feeling ; making known the dis- 
 tressed situation of her family at home, the fearful 
 anxiety of mind she had suffered on account of the 
 prolonged absence of her husband and her ignorance 
 of his fate, and her children's urgent need of his care 
 and protection. From Major Doyle she had at length 
 learned that he was held a prisoner by his lordship's 
 orders. She had come, therefore, to entreat mercy for 
 him ; to pray that he might be released and permitted 
 to go home with her. This appeal to compassion she 
 made with all the address in her power, nor was the 
 untaught language of distress wanting in power to 
 excite pity in any feeling heart. 
 
 Lord Eawdon heard her to the end. His reply was 
 
 characteristic. " I would rather hang such rebels 
 
 than eat my breakfast." This insulting speech was 
 addressed to his suppliant while her eyes were fixed 
 on him in the agony of her entreaty, a,n<i the tears 
 were streaming down her cheeks. Ills words dried 
 up the fountain at once, and the spirit of the American 
 matron was roused. " Would you V^ was her answer, 
 while she turned on him a look of the deepest scorn. 
 A moment after, with a struggle to control her feelings, 
 for she well knew how much depended on that — she 
 said, " I crave of your lordship permission to see my 
 husband." 
 
 The haughty chief felt the look of scorn his cruel 
 language had called up in her face, for his own con- 
 science bore testimony against him, but pride forbade 
 
150 NOBLK DEEDS 
 
 his yield ino- to tJie dictates of better feeling. "You 
 should consider, madam," he answered, "in whoso 
 
 presence you now stand. Your husband is a rebel " 
 
 IMrs. McCalla was about to reply — but her com- 
 panion, tlie Major, gave her a look wiu-ning her to be 
 silent, and in truth the words that sprang to her lips 
 would have ill pleased the Briton. Doyle now inter- 
 posed, and requested his lordship to step aside with 
 him for a moment. They left the apartment, and 
 shortly afterwards returned. Eawdon tlien said to his 
 > visitor, with a stately coldness that precluded all hope 
 of softening his determination : " Major Doyle, madam, 
 has my permission to let you go into the prison. You 
 may continue in tlie prison ten mmutes only. Major, 
 you have my orders." So saying, he bowed politely 
 both to her and tJie officer, as intimating that the 
 business was ended, and they were dismissed. They 
 ficcordingly quitted the room. .... 
 
 The sight of the prison-pen almost overcame the 
 fortitude of the resolute wife. An enclosure like that 
 constructed for animals, guarded by soldieins, was the 
 habitation of the unfortunate prisonei*s, who sato 
 witbin on the bare earth, many of tliem sullering with 
 the prevalent distemper, and stretched helpless on the 
 ground, with no shelter from the burning sun of Sep- 
 tember. " Is it possible," cried the matron, turning 
 to Doyle, " that you shut up men in this manner, as 
 you would a parcel of hogs !" She was then admitted 
 into the jail, and welcome indeed was the sight of her 
 familiar face to McCalla. The time allotted for the 
 interview was too short to be wasted in condolemcnt 
 
OF i^MEBlCAN WOMKN. 151 
 
 or complaint; she UAd U'lm slie inuHt depart in a few 
 minuteB, informed liim of the state of his family — 
 inquired carefully what were his wants, and promised 
 Bpeedy relief When the ten minutes had expired, 
 she again shook hands with him, assuring him she 
 would shortly return with clothes for his use, and 
 what provisions she could bring, then turning walked 
 away with a firm step, stopping to shake hands with 
 young John Adair and the other captives with whom 
 she was acquainted. Tlie word of encouragement was 
 not wanting, and as she hade the prisoners adieu, she 
 said: " Have no fear ; the women are doing their 
 part of the service." " I admire your spirit, madam," 
 Doyle observed to her, "but must request you to be a 
 little more cautious." 
 
 Mrs. McCalla was furnished by the Major with a 
 pass, which she showed to the officer on duty as she 
 passed the guard on her return, and to the officer at 
 the ferry. She rode with all speed, and was at home 
 before midnight; having had less than twenty-four 
 hours for the accomplishment of her whole enterprise; 
 in that time riding one hundred miles, crossing the 
 river twice, and passing the guard four times — visit- 
 ing her husband, and having the interview with Lord 
 Eiawdon, in which probably for the first time in his 
 ife he felt uneasiness from a woman's rebuke. It 
 convinced him that even in the breast of woman a 
 spiriteof independence might dwell, which no oppres- 
 sion could subdue, and before which brute force must 
 quail, as something of superior nature. How must 
 tlie unexpected outbreaking of this spirit, from time 
 
152 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 to time, have dismayed those who imagined it was 
 crushed forever throughout the conquered province ! 
 
 It is proper to say that Mrs. McCalla met with 
 kinder treatment from the other British officers to 
 whom she had occasion to apply at this time, for 
 they were favorably impressed by the courage and 
 strength of affection evinced by her. Even the sol- 
 diers, as she passed them, paid her marks of resj^ect. 
 The tories alone showed no sympathy nor pity for 
 her trials ; it being constantly observed that there 
 was deeper hostility towards the whigs on the part 
 of their countrymen of different politics, than those 
 of English birth. 
 
 Mrs. McCalla began her work immediately afttr 
 her arrival at home ; making new clothes, altering 
 and mending others, and preparing provisions. Her 
 preparations being completed, she again set out for 
 Camden. This time she had the company of one of 
 her neighbors, Mrs. Mary Nixon. Each of the wo 
 men drove before her a pack-horse, laden with the 
 articles provided for the nse of their suffering friends. 
 They were again admitted to the presence of Lord 
 Rawdon to petition for leave to visit the prisoners, but 
 nothing particular occurred at the interview. Plis 
 lordship treated the matron who had offended him with 
 much haughtiness, and she on her part felt for him 
 a contempt not the less strong that it was not openly 
 expressed. From this time she made her journeys 
 about once a month to Camden, carrying clean clothes 
 and provisions ; being often accompanied by otlier 
 women bound on similar errands, and conveying arti- 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 153 
 
 cles of food and clothing to their captive fathers, hus- 
 bands, or brothers. They rode without escort, fearless 
 of peril by the way, and regardless of fatigue, though 
 the journey was usually performed in haste, and un- 
 der the pressure of anxiety for those at home as well 
 as those to whose relief they were going. On one 
 occasion, when Mrs. McCalla was just about setting 
 off alone upon her journey, news of a glorious event 
 was brought to her ; the news of the battle of King's 
 Mountain, which took place on the seventh of October. 
 She did not stop to rejoice in the victory of her coun- 
 trymen, but went on with a lightened heart, longing, 
 no doubt, to share the joy with him who might hope, 
 from the changed aspect of affairs, some mitigation 
 of his imprisonment. 
 
 . ■ . . About the first of December, Mrs. McCalla 
 went again to Camden. On the preceding trip she 
 had met with Lord Cornwallis, by whom she was 
 treated with kindness. Whatever hopes she had 
 groimded on this, however, were doomed to disap- 
 pointment ; he was this time reserved and silent. She 
 was afterwards informed by the Major that a consid- 
 erable reverse had befallen his majesty's troops at 
 Clermont, and the annoyance felt on this account — 
 Doyle said — was the cause of his not showing as 
 much courtesy as he usually did to ladies. " You 
 must excuse him," observed the good-natured officer, 
 who seems to have always acted the part of a peace- 
 maker on these occasions; and he added that Corn- 
 wallis had never approved of the cruelties heretofore 
 practised. 
 
54 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 Towards the last of December the indefatigable 
 wife again performed the weary journey to Camden. 
 McCalla's health had been impaired for some months, 
 and was now declining ; it was therefore necessary 
 to make a strenuous effort to move the compassion of 
 his enemies, and procure his release. Eawdon was 
 in command, and she once more applied to him 
 to obtain permission for her husband to go home with 
 lier. As might have been anticipated, her petition 
 was refused : his lordship informed her that he could 
 do nothing in the premises ; but that if she would go 
 to Winnsboro' and present her request to Lord Corn- 
 wallis, he might possibly be induced to give her an 
 order for the liberation of the prisoner. 
 
 To "Winnsboro', accordingly, she made her way, 
 determined to lose no time in presenting her applica- 
 tion. It was on 'New Year's morning that she entered 
 the village. The troops were under parade, and his 
 lordship was engaged in reviewing them ; there could 
 be no admission, therefore, to his presence for some 
 time, and she had nothing to do but remain a silent 
 spectator of the imposing scene. A woman less 
 energetic, and less desirous of improving every oppor- 
 tunity for the good of others, might have sought rest 
 after the fatigues of her journey, during the hours 
 her business had to wait ; Sarah McCalla was one of 
 heroic stamp, whose private troubles never caused her 
 to forget what she might do for her country. She 
 passed the time in noticing particularly every thing 
 she saw, not knowing but that her report might do 
 service. After the laps§ of several hours, the inter- 
 
OF AMERICAIS WOMlilN. 155 
 
 view she craved with Cornwallis was granted. He re- 
 ceived her with courtesy and kindness, listened atten- 
 tively to all she had to say, and appeared to feel pity 
 for her distresses. But his polished expression of 
 sympathy, to which her hopes clung with desperation, 
 was accompanied with regret that he could not, con- 
 sistently with the duties of his Majesty's service, 
 comply unconditionally with her request. He ex- 
 pressed, nevertheless, entire willingness to enter into 
 an exchange with General Sumter, releasing McCalla 
 for any prisoner he had in his possession. Or he 
 would accept the pledge of General Sumter that Mc- 
 Calla should not again serve until exchanged, and 
 would liberate him on that security. "But, mad 
 am," he added, " it is Sumter himself who must 
 stand pledged for the keeping of the parole. We 
 have been too lenient heretofore, and have let men 
 go who immediately made use of their liberty to 
 take up arms against us." 
 
 "With this the long-tried wife was forced to be 
 content, and she now saw the way clear to the ac- 
 complishment of her enterprise. She lost no time in 
 returning home, and immediately set out for Char- 
 lotte to seek aid from the American general. She 
 found Sumter at this place, nearly recovered of the 
 wounds he had received in the action at Black- 
 stock's, in ITovember. Her appeal to him was at 
 once favorably received. He gave her a few lines, 
 stating that he would stand pledged for McCalla's 
 continuance at home peaceably until he should be 
 regularly exchanged. This paper was more precious 
 
156 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 than gold to the matron whose perseverance- had 
 obtained it; but it was destined to do her little 
 good. She now made the best of her way home- 
 ward. After crossing the Catawba, she encountered 
 the army of General Morgan, was stopped, being sus- 
 pected to be a tory, and taken into his presence 
 for examination. The idea that she could be thus 
 suspected afforded her no little amusement, and 
 she permitted the mistake to continue for some 
 time, before she produced the paper in Sumter's 
 hand-writing which she well knew would remove 
 every difficulty. She then informed the General of 
 her visit to Winnsboro' on the first of January, 
 and her sight of the review of the troops. Mor- 
 gan thanked her for the information and dismissed 
 her, and without further adventure she arrived at 
 her own house. 
 
 A few days after her return, the British army, 
 being on its march from Winnsboro', encamped on 
 the plantation of John Service, in Chester district, 
 and afterwards at Turkey creek. Mrs. McCalla 
 went to one of those camps in the hope of seeing 
 J_jord Cornwallis. She succeeded in obtaining this 
 privilege ; his lordship recognised her as soon as 
 she entered the camp, and greeted her coui-teously, 
 questioning her as to her movements, and making 
 many inquiries about Sumter and Morgan. On this 
 last point she was on her guard, communicating no 
 more information than she felt certain could give 
 the enemy no manner of advantage, nor subject 
 her friends to inconvenience At length she pi*e- 
 
OF AMEKICAN WOMEN. 157 
 
 sented to the noble Briton the paper which she 
 imagined would secure her husl)and'8 freedom. 
 What was her disapj^ointment when he referred her 
 to Lord Rawdon, as the proper person to take cog- 
 nizance of the affair ! The very name was a death- 
 blow to her hopes, for she well knew she could 
 expect nothing from his clemency. Remonstrance 
 and entreaty were alike in vain ; Cornwallis was a 
 courteous man, but he knew how, with a bland smile 
 and well-turned phrase of compliment, to refuse com- 
 pliance even with a request that apjDealed so strongly 
 to every feeling of humanity, as that of an anxious 
 wife pleading for the suffering and imprisoned father 
 of her children. She must submit, however, to the 
 will of those in power ; there was no resource but 
 another journey to Camden, in worse than doubt 
 of the success she had fancied just within her reach 
 It was a day or two after the battle of the Cow- 
 pens that she crossed the ferry on her way to 
 Camden. She had not yet heard of that bloody 
 action, but, observing that the guard was doubled at 
 the ferry, concluded that something unusual had oc- 
 curred. As she entered the village, she met her 
 old friend Major Doyle, who stopped to speak to 
 her. His first inquiry was if she had heard the 
 news ; and when she answered in the negative, 
 he told her of the "melancholy affair" that had 
 occurred at the Cowpens. The time, he observed, 
 was most inauspicious for the business on which he 
 knew she had come. "I fear, madam," he said, 
 " that his lordship will not treat you well." 
 
158 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 " I have no liope," was her answer, " that he will 
 let Thomas go home ; but, sir, it is my duty to 
 make efforts to save my husband. I will thank you 
 to go with me to Lord Rawdon's quarters." 
 
 Her reception was such as she had expected. 
 As soon as Rawdon saw her, he cried angrily, " You 
 here again, madam ! "Well — you want your hus- 
 band — I dare say! Do you not know what the 
 rebels have been doing ? " 
 
 " I do not, sir," replied the dejected matron, foi 
 she saw that his mood was one of fury. 
 
 " If we had hung them," he continued, " we should 
 have been saved this. Madam ! I order you most 
 positively never to come into my presence again ! " 
 
 It was useless, Mrs. McCalla knew, to attempt 
 to stem the tide; she did not therefore produce, 
 nor even mention the paper given her by Sumter, 
 nor apologise for the intrusion by saying that Lord 
 Cornwallis had directed her to apply to him; but 
 merely answered in a subdued and respectful tone 
 by asking what she had done. 
 
 " Enough ! " exclaimed the irritated noble. " You 
 go from one army to another, and Heaven only 
 knows what mischief you do! Begone." 
 
 She waited for no second dismissal, but could not 
 refrain from saying, as she went out, in an audible 
 voice, " My countrymen must right me." Lord 
 Rawdon called her back and demanded what she 
 was saying. She had learned by this time some 
 lessons in policy, and answered, with a smile, " We 
 are but simple countrv folk." His lordship proba- 
 
OF AMERICAN WOlklEN. 169 
 
 biy saw througli the deceit, for turning to his officer, 
 he said, " Upon my life, Doyle, she is a wretch of a 
 woman!" And thus she left him. 
 
 That great event — the battle of the Cowpens — 
 revived the spirits of the patriots throughout the 
 country. Every where, as the news si^read, men who 
 had before been discouraged flew to arms. The ac- 
 tion took place on the seventeenth of January, 
 1781; on the twenty-second of the same month, six 
 wagons were loaded with corn at Wade's island, 
 sixty miles down the Catawba for the use of Gen 
 eral Davison's division. The w^hole whig country 
 of Chester, York and Lancaster may be said to 
 have risen in mass, and was rallying to arms. 
 Mecklenburg, JNTorth Carolina, was again the scene 
 of warlike preparation; for the whigs hoped to give 
 the enemy another defeat at Cowans or Batisford 
 on the Catawba. On the twenty-fourth of January, 
 General Sumter crossed this river at Landsford, and 
 received a sup23ly of corn from Wade's island. 
 His object was to cross the districts to the west, 
 in the rear of the advancing British army, to 
 arouse the country and gather forces as he went, 
 threaten the English posts at ]Srinety-Six and Granby, 
 and go on to recover the State. While Cornwallis 
 marched from his encampment on Service's plan- 
 tation, the whigs of Chester, under the gallant 
 Captains John Mills and James Johnston, were 
 hovering near, watching the miovements of the hostile 
 army as keenly as the eagle watches his intended 
 prey. Choosing a fit opportunity, as they followed 
 
160 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 in the rear, tliey pounced upon a couple of British 
 officers, one of whom was Major McCarter, at a 
 moment when thej had not the least suspicion of 
 danger, took them prisoners in sight of the enemy, 
 and made good their retreat. By means of this 
 bold exploit the liberation of McCalla was brought 
 about, at a time when his wife was wholly dis- 
 heartened by her repeated and grievous disap- 
 pointments. When General Sumter passed through 
 the country, a cartel of exchange was effected, 
 giving the two British officers in exchange for the 
 prisoners of Chester district in Camden and Charles- 
 ton. 
 
 The person sent with the flag to accomj)lish this 
 exchange in Camden, was Samuel Neely of Fishing 
 creek. As he passed through the town to the quar- 
 ters of Lord Kaw^don, he was seen and recognized 
 by the prisoners, and it may be supposed their 
 hearts beat w^ith joy at the prospect of speedy re- 
 lease. But in consequence of some mismanagement 
 of the business, the unfortunate men were detained 
 in jail several weeks longer. ]^eely was in haste 
 to proceed to Charleston, being anxious, in the 
 accomplishment of his mission in that city, to get 
 his son Thomas out of the prison-ship, and in his 
 hurry probably neglected some necessary formalities. 
 His countrymen in Camden were kept in confine- 
 ment after his return from Charleston with hip son. 
 Captain Mills was informed of this, and indignant 
 at the supposed disrespect shown" by Lord E-awdon 
 to the cartel of General Sumter, wrote a letter of 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 161 
 
 remonstrance to Kawdon, which he entrusted to Mrs. 
 McCalla to be conveyed to him. 
 
 Our heroine was accompanied on this journey by 
 Mrs. Mary Dixon, for she judged it impolitic that 
 the letter should be delivered by one so obnoxious 
 to his lordship as herself. Still she deemed it hei 
 duty to be on the spot to welcome her liberated 
 husband, supply all his wants, and conduct him 
 home. The distance was traversed this time with 
 lighter heart than before, for now she had no reason 
 to fear disappointment. "When they arrived at Cam- 
 den, they went to the jail. John Adair was standing 
 at a window; they saw and greeted each other, the 
 women standing in the yard below. Perhaps in 
 consequence of his advice, or prudential considera- 
 tions on their part, they determined not to avail 
 themselves of the good offices of Major Doyle on 
 this occasion. Adair directed them to send the 
 jailor up to him, and wrote a note introducing his 
 sister to the acquaintance of Lord Hawdon. The 
 two women then proceeded to the quarters of that 
 nobleman. When they arrived at the gate, Mrs. 
 McCalla stopped, saying she would wait there, and 
 her companion proceeded by herself. She was ad- 
 mitted into the presence of Lord Rawdon, who read 
 the note of introduction she handed to him, and 
 observed, referring to the writer — that the small-pox 
 had almost finished him ; still, he had come very 
 near escaping from the jail; that he was "a grand 
 'scape-gallows." On reading the letter of Captain 
 
 Mills his color changed, and when he had finished 
 11 
 
162 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 it, turning to Mrs. ITixon, he said in an altered 
 tone: "I am sorry these men have not been dis- 
 missed, as of right they ought." He immediately 
 vvrote a discharge for eleven of the prisoners, and 
 put it into her hands, saying : " You can get them 
 out, madam. I am very sorry they have been con- 
 fined so many weeks longer than they should have 
 been." At the same time he gave Mrs. !Nixon a 
 guinea. " This," he said, " will bear yom- expenses." 
 His lordship accompanied her on her way out, 
 and as she passed through the gate his eye fell 
 on Mrs. McCalla, whom he instantly recognized. 
 Walking to the spot where she stood near the gate, 
 he said fiercely : " Did I not order you, madam, 
 to keep out of my presence ? " The matron's inde- 
 pendent spirit flashed from her eyes, as she answered : 
 " I had no wish, sir, to intrude myself on 3^our 
 presence ; I stopjDed at the gate on purpose to avoid 
 you." Unable to resist the temptation of speaking 
 her mind for once, now that she had a last oppor- 
 tunity, she added : "I might turn the tables on you, 
 sir, and ask, why did you come out to the gate to 
 insult a woman ? I have received from you nothing 
 but abuse. My distresses you have made sport of, 
 and I ceased long since to expect anything from 
 you but ill-treatment. I am now not your supplicant ; 
 I came to demand^ as a right, the release of my 
 husband ! " . So saying, she bowed to him contempt- 
 uously, wheeled about, and deliberately walked off, 
 without stopping to see how her bold language was 
 received. Mrs. Mxon hastened after her, pale as 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 163 
 
 death, and at first too mucli frightened to speak 
 As soon as she found voice, she exclaimed : " Sally . 
 jou have ruined us, I am afraid! Why, he may 
 put us both in jail!" 
 
 Mrs. McCalla laughed outright. "It is not the 
 first time, Mary," she replied, "that I have given 
 him to understand I thought him a villain ! " The 
 two made their way back to the prison, but even 
 after they got there Mrs^ JS^ixon had not recovered 
 from her terror. She was informed that it would 
 be some time before the prisoners could be released. 
 The blacksmith was then sent for, and came with 
 his tools. The sound of the hammering in the 
 appartments of the jail, gave the first intimation 
 to the women who waited to greet their friends, 
 that the helpless captives were chained to the floor. 
 This precaution had been adopted not long before, 
 in consequence of some of the prisoners having 
 attempted an escape. They were then put in hand- 
 cuffs or chained by the ankle. These men left the 
 place of their long imprisonment and suffering 
 in company with the two women, and as they 
 marched through the streets of Camden, passing the 
 British guard, they sang at the top of their voices 
 the songs of the "liberty-men." 
 
INTREPIDITY OF MRS. ISRAEL. 
 
 He is not worthy of the honey comb, 
 
 That shuns the hive because the bees have stings. 
 
 Shakspeabe. 
 
 Duttsig the Revolution, Israel Israel, a true whig 
 and a worthy farmer, residing on the banks of the 
 Delaware, near Wilmington, was, for a short time, 
 a prisoner on board the frigate Roebuck, directly 
 opposite his own house and land. While thus sit- 
 uated, it was reported by some loyalists by whose 
 treachery he had been betrayed into the hands of 
 the enemy, that he had said repeatedly that " he 
 would sooner drive his cattle as a present to George 
 Washington, than receive thousands of dollars in 
 British gold for them." The commander hearing 
 the report, to be revenged on the rebel, sent a small 
 detachment ^f soldiers to drive his cattle, which 
 were in plaia sight of the frigate, down to the De- 
 laware, and Slave them slaughtered before tbeir 
 owner's eyes. Mrs. Israel,^ who was young and 
 
 * The maiden n^me of Mrs. Israel was Hannah Erwin. Her first 
 meeting with her fiusband was romantic enough. Mr. Israel bad 
 
NOBLE DEEDS 165 
 
 sprightly, and brave as a Spartan, seeing the move- 
 ments of the soldiers as she stood in her doorway, 
 and divining their purpose as they marched tawards 
 the meadow where the cattle were grazing, called a 
 boy about eight years old, and started off in great 
 haste, to defeat, if possible, their marauding project. 
 They threatened and she defied, till at last they fired 
 at her. The cattle, more terrified than she, scattered 
 over the fields ; and as the balls flew thicker she cal- 
 led on the little boy "Joe" the louder and more 
 earnestly to help, determined that the assailants 
 should not have one of the cattle. TTiey did not. 
 She drove them all into the barn-yard, when the 
 soldiers, out of respect to her courage, or for some 
 other cause, ceased their molestations and returned 
 to the frigate. 
 
 sailed in a sloop, or packet, from Philadelpliia, to visit New Castle 
 where his mother and family resided. He observed on deck an ex- 
 tremely pretty girl, hardly seventeeen years of age, and very neatly 
 and tastefully dressed, with the finest tmned foot and ankle ixi the 
 world. AU who went on such voyages were then obhged to furnish 
 themselves with provisions ; and his attention was drawn by the young 
 girl's kindly distribution of her little stock, handing it about from one 
 to anotlier, till but little was left for her own portion. In passing him, 
 she modestly hesitated a moment, and then offered him a shai-e. This 
 led to conversation ; he learned that she was the daughter of highly 
 respectable parents, and resided in "Wilmington. Love at first sight 
 was as common in those days as now. After seeing his mother, he 
 visited Wilmington; became better acquainted, offered himself and 
 was accepted : and on his marriage, rented the farm above mentioned, 
 and commenced life anew. — [ Mrs. Ellet 
 
AN iJsrciDEis^T m missio:n^aey lq^e. 
 
 Love's holy flame for ever bumeth ; 
 From heaven it came, to heaven retumeth ; 
 Too oft on earth a troubled guest, 
 
 . . . at times oppressed. 
 It here is tried and purified. 
 Then hath in heaven its perfect rest. 
 It SQ-weth here with toil and care, 
 But the harvest time of love is there. 
 
 SOUTHET. 
 
 "No class of laborers in the broad harvest field of 
 the world endure so many sacrifices of comfort and 
 of home felicities as the missionaries to foreign 
 countries. Of the trials peculiar to mothers who go 
 forth on such an errand of humanity, the keenest must 
 be their separation from their children. The pei 
 nicious habits and influences of a pagan community, 
 often render it absolutely necessary that their offspring 
 should be sent to a civilized land to be educated. 
 This duty, however painful, is imperative, and they 
 who accuse the mother of hardness because she does 
 it, are either grossly ignorant, or haters of truth. 
 Many instances of heroic firmness and almost super- 
 human calmness under such trials, are on record, but 
 one may stand as a type of the whole. 
 
OI AMEKIOAN WOMEN. 167 
 
 Mrs. Comstock* of the Burmali Baptist mission 
 felt called upon to part with her two children, whom 
 God had given her while on the field of labor. 
 The horn' for separation came, and taking them by 
 the hand, she led them down to the ship that was 
 to bear them for ever from her sight. Having in- 
 voked the blessing of Heaven upon them, she gave 
 each the parting kiss and, with streaming ejes, 
 lifted her hands towards heaven and exclaimed : 
 "My Saviour! 1 do this for thee." 
 
 Amid the jungles of the East, 
 
 Where gloomiest forms of sin are rife. 
 
 Like flowerets in a desert drear. 
 
 Her treasured ones had sprung to life. 
 
 And smiling round her, day by day. 
 
 Though cai'es unnumbered weigh her heart, 
 
 Their prattle, fuU of music tones. 
 Unceasing joy and hope impart. 
 
 Their little minds, like tender buds 
 
 In vernal hom-s, she sees unfold, 
 And young affection in their eyes 
 
 Is gleaming like a gem of gold. 
 
 But 'mid the toils that press her sore - — 
 The spirit- wants of 'wildered ones — 
 
 These buds must often miss the dew. 
 And plead in vain for constant suns. 
 
 She sees their smiles, their music hears» 
 
 And feels affection's holy thraU; 
 But duty's voice, from out the skies. 
 
 In sweeter tones, is heard o'er all. 
 
 * Sai-ah Davis Comstock was tlie wife of the Rev. Grover S. 
 Comstock, who was stationed at Kyouk Phyoo in the province of 
 Arracan, Burmah, She was born at Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1812, 
 and died at Ramree, April twenty-eighth, 1843. 
 
168 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 To "Western climes, illumed by truth, 
 
 And blest •with learning's sacred flowers. 
 
 These blossoms of her heart must go, 
 To bloom henceforth in stranger bowers. 
 
 She leads them to the waiting ship ; 
 
 She kneels in anguish on the deck. 
 And while she breathes a silent prayer. 
 
 Their arms like tendrils twine her neck. 
 
 She tears her from the loved away, 
 Whom she on earth no more may see, 
 
 And looking up to heaven, exclaims, 
 "My Saviour, I do this for thee ! " 
 
 Then hastens to her task again. 
 
 The pleasant task her Saviour's given. 
 
 That, finished all, she may ascend, 
 A.nd lure the distant ones to heaven 
 
A KESTD-HEARTED CHIPPEWA. 
 
 Both men and women belie their nature 
 "When they are not kind. 
 
 Bailey's Festus. 
 
 In the earlj settlement of Ohio, Daniel Convers 
 was captured by the savages ; but he had the good 
 fortune to be purchased by a noble-hearted Indian 
 whose wife possessed a kindred spirit. His condi- 
 tion, we are informed in the Pioneer History of 
 Ohio, " was not that of a slave, but rather an 
 adoption into the family as a son. The Indian's 
 wife, whom he was directed to call mother, was a 
 model of all that is excellent in woman, being 
 patient, kind-hearted, humane and considerate to 
 the wants and comfort of all around her, and es- 
 pecially so to their newly adopted son. To sum 
 up all her excellences in a brief sentence of the 
 captive's own language, she was ' as good a woman 
 as ever lived.' " * 
 
 * Mr. Convers escaped from his Chippewa friends, at Detroit. 
 Touching the treatment he received from his adopted mother, a 
 writer says : " How few among the more civilized race of whites 
 would ever imitate the Christian charities of this untaught daughter 
 of nature I " 
 
HUMAisrrrY of a cherokee 
 
 How poor an instrument 
 May do a noble deed. 
 
 Shakspearib. 
 
 Dming the Revolution, a young Sliawanese In 
 dian was captured by the Gherokees and sentenced 
 to die at the stake. He was tied, and the usual 
 preparations were made for his execution, when a 
 Cherokee woman went to the warrior to whom the 
 prisoner belonged, and throwing a parcel of goods 
 at his feet, said she was a widow and would 
 adopt the captive as her son, and earnestly plead 
 for his deliverance. Her prayer was granted, and 
 the prisoner taken under her care. He rewarded 
 her by his fidelity, for, in spite of the entreaties oi 
 his friends, whom he was allowed to visit, he never 
 left her. 
 
SELF-SACRIFICING SPIEIT OF THE MIS- 
 SIOJ^AEY. 
 
 Thou know 'st not, Afric ! sad of heart and blind, 
 
 Unskilled the precious Book of God to read ; 
 Thou canst not know, what moved that soul refined. 
 
 Thy lot of wi'etchedness to heed. 
 And from her fireside, bright with hallowed glee. 
 To dare the boisterous surge and deadly clime for thee. 
 
 Mrs. Sigoubney. 
 
 We know not how one may exhibit greater benevo- 
 lence than to offer life for the spiritual good of the 
 heathen ; and he virtually does this who goes to 
 some, at least, of the missionary stations. Those in 
 Africa are the most unhealthy, and their history 
 presents a frightful bill of mortality. In his journal 
 of January, 1846, Dr. Savage, of the Protestant Epis- 
 copal mission in Africa, states that during the nine 
 years previous to that date, the whole number of mis- 
 sionaries under the patronage of the different Boards, 
 in Africa, had been sixty-one, and of that number 
 forty were then dead. American Baptists alone lost 
 eleven between 1826 and 1848. Five of them were 
 buried in the single town of Monrovia. With such 
 facts as these, touching African missions, staring the 
 disciple of Christ in the face, it must require no com 
 
172 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 mon degree of moral courage for him to embark in 
 the enterprise. 
 
 The following letter, by Miss Maria Y. Chapin, 
 of Vermont, was written prior to her leaving this 
 country for West Africa, and breathes the senti- 
 ments of a self-sacrificing and heroic Christian. Mul- 
 titudes of like examples, equally as noble, might be 
 pointed out, but it seems to be needless : this letter 
 may stand as a type of the spirit usually exhibited 
 under similar circumstances. It was addressed to the 
 Kev. Dr. Yaughan, then Secretary of the Foreign 
 Committee of the Protestant Episcopal church : 
 
 "The question of my personally engaging in a 
 mission to the heathen, has long been before my 
 mind, and received, as it claimed, my most serious 
 and prayerful consideration. This great work is now 
 brought nearer to my mind than I could ever before 
 regard it, and I trust it does not appear the less desi- 
 rable. I have considered the subject in every light, 
 so far as I am able from the information I have re- 
 specting it, and I can never take up the question 
 again, to find reasons for going. My mind is now 
 settled as to the duty, should no unforeseen providence 
 prevent, of leaving home and country for a heathen 
 land. A long adieu to my kindred and friends will 
 rend the heart; 1 feel already that it will ; but at the 
 same time, the prospect of doing good to some poor 
 heathen soul will fill it with joy, and the hope of ad 
 vancing, in ever so small a degree, the cause of my 
 Eedeemer, wiU be a constant feast to the soul. The 
 silent tear of parental affection and solicitude would 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 173 
 
 indeed overpower me, had I not confidence that lie 
 who thus afflicts, will support, my beloved parents. 
 Neither, in the present case, can I think it proper to 
 follow, altogether, the opinion of friends. With the 
 smiles of my heavenly Father, I must be happy, 
 though friends forsake me. I feel an inexpressible 
 pleasure in commending them to God, assured that 
 they will be enabled to give up their child without re- 
 gret, in the hope that she will do good to perishing 
 souls. And I have, also, that blessed hope, that, 
 should we never again meet in this world, we shall be 
 a happy family circle at the right hand of God. 
 Still, I feel my own insufficiency to decide a question 
 of such importance as that of leaving all that the 
 heart holds most dear on earth, to encounter the toils 
 and hardships of a missionary life. Indeed, I would 
 not decide for myself. I trust solely to Him who has 
 promised grace and strength. Though, at times, great 
 weakness has constrained me to shrink at the pros- 
 pect before me, I have been consoled and supported 
 in the assurance that God will perfect strength in my 
 weakness. I feel a desire to act in accordance with 
 the will of God ; to do nothing which would be dis- 
 pleasing in His sight. I think I am willing to be, and 
 to do, anything for the sake of the glory of God ; and 
 if I can only be sure that I am wholly under the gui- 
 dance of His spirit, I shall be fully satisfied. It is 
 difficult, 1 know, to analyze one's feelings, and ascer- 
 tain the real character of the motives by which we are 
 actuated; I feel my liability to be deceived, and my 
 need of Divine assistance. The only question which 
 
174 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 concerns me, is, are mj motives pure and holy? 
 l>rever would I bear the missionary standard, without 
 having in my heart the missionary spirit. I have 
 calmly and deliberately weighed the subject, and feel 
 that no attraction from its v ^velty, no impulse from 
 its moral dignity, can bear up, and carry forward any 
 one, amidst the long continued labors of almost uni- 
 form sameness which you represented to me ; nothing 
 but a thorough conviction of being in the path of duty, 
 nothing but the approving smile of Heaven, can keep 
 one from despondency, from sinking into hopeless in- 
 activity ; but I have calmly and deliberately weighed 
 the subject, and feel a willingness to give up comforts, 
 and submit to privations, to forsake ease and endure 
 toil, to assemble no more 'with the great congrega- 
 tion,' but seek the Lord in the wilderness, or in the 
 desert — in short, to make every sacrifice of personal 
 ease and gratification, for the one great object of ma- 
 king known a crucified Saviour to those w^ho are per- 
 ishing in ignorance and sin. Indeed, what sacrifice 
 can be too great, if what is done for Him who bought 
 us with his own blood can be called a sacrifice, for 
 those to make, who have themselves experienced the 
 efficacy of a Saviour's blood? I have reflected, that 
 should I go out, cheered by the smiles of friends, and 
 encouraged by the approbation of the churches, yet 
 soon, amidst a people of strange speech, I shall see 
 these smiles only in remembrance, and hear the voice 
 of encouragement only in dying whispers across the 
 ocean. Yet, when I have considered the command of 
 •Christ, 'Go ye and teach all nations,' — and when 
 
OF AMEKICAJ^ WOMEN. 175 
 
 in pouring out my soul on this subject to the Father 
 of light, I have realized more of that sweet ' peace 
 which passeth all understanding;' objections have 
 nil dwindled to a point; I have been enabled, by 
 the eye of faith, to di&cover the finger of God, 
 pointing me to the benighted African, and have 
 heard his voice saying, with the affection of a Father 
 and the authority of a Sovereign, ' Come, follow me' 
 — 'He that loveth father or mother more than me, 
 is not worthy of me ; ' and adding, for my encourage- 
 ment, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' 
 I do feel that God calls me to become a missionary, 
 and do, with this belief, resolve to consider myself 
 as devoted to that service, hoping that God will 
 qualify me, and make me a faithful servant for 
 Christ's sake.""^ 
 
 *This letter was written in the fall of 1841. Miss Chapin, afterwards 
 Mrs. Savage, embarked for Africa on the twenty-eighth of the following 
 January, and reached Cape Palmas on the twenty-fifth of March, As 
 might be anticipated, her labors soon closed. She died on the field, 
 in December, 1843. 
 
 "That life is long which answers life's great end." 
 
DAEIISTG EXPLOIT OF "TWO KEBELS." 
 
 Think'st tliou there dwells no courage but in breasts 
 That set their mail against the ringing spears, 
 When helmets are struck down ? Thou little knowest 
 Of nature's marvels. 
 
 Mrs. Hemans. 
 
 During the sieges of Augusta and Cambridge, two 
 young men of the name of Martin, belonging to 
 ]^inety-Six district, South Carolina, were in the 
 army. Mear while their wives, who remained at 
 home with their mother-in-law, displayed as much 
 courage, on a certain occasion, as was exhibited, 
 perhaps, by any female during the struggle for In- 
 dependence. 
 
 Receiving intelligence one evening that a courier, 
 under guard of two British officers, would pass their 
 house that night with important dispatches, Grace 
 and Bachel Martin resolved to surprise the party 
 and obtain the papers. Disguising themselves in 
 their husbands' outer garments and providing them- 
 selves with arms, they waylaid the enemy. Soon 
 after they took their station by the road-side, the 
 courier and his escort made their appearance. At 
 the proper moment, the disguised ladies sprang from 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 177 
 
 their bushj covert, and presenting their pistols, or- 
 dered the party to surrender their papers. Surprised 
 and alarmed, they obeyed without hesitation or the 
 least resistance. The brave women having put them 
 on parole, hastened home by the nearest route, which 
 was a by-path through the woods, and dispatched the 
 documents to General Greene by a single messenger, 
 who probably had mo4"e courage than the trio that 
 'S lately bore them. 
 
 Strange to say, a few minutes after the ladies 
 reached home, and just as they had doffed their 
 male attire, the officers, retracing their steps, rode up 
 to the house and craved accommodations for the 
 night. The mother of the heroines asked them the 
 cause of their so speedy return after passing her 
 house, when they exhibited their paroles and said that 
 " two rebels " had taken them prisoners. Here the 
 young ladies, in a rallying mood, asked them if they 
 had no arms, to which query they replied, that, 
 although they had, they were arrested so suddenly 
 that they had no time to use them. We have only 
 to add that they were hospitably entertained, and 
 the next morning took their leave of the women as 
 ignorant of the residence of their captors as when 
 first arrested. 
 
ELIZABETH MAETIK 
 
 The mothers of our Forest-land I 
 Their bosoms pillowed men. 
 
 "W. D. Gallagher. 
 
 — A fine family is a fine thing. 
 
 Byeon. 
 
 The mother-in-law of the two patriotic women 
 spoken of in the preceding article, was a native of 
 Caroline county, Yirginia. Her maiden name was 
 Marshall. On marrying Mr. Abram Martin, she re- 
 moved to South Carolina. 
 
 When the Revolutionary war broke out, she had 
 seven sons old enough to enlist in their country's 
 service ; and as soon as the call to arms was heard, 
 she said to them, ''Go, boys, and fight for yom* 
 country ! fight till death, if you must, but never 
 let your country be dishonored. Were I a man I 
 would go with you." 
 
 Several British ofiicers once called at her house, 
 and while receiving some refreshments, one of them 
 asked her how many sons she had. She told him, 
 eight; and when asked where they were, she boldly 
 replied, " Seven of them are engaged in the service 
 
OF AMT7RICAJT WOMEN. 179 
 
 of their country." The officer sneeringly observed 
 that she had enough of them. "No, sir, I wish I 
 had fifty!" was her prompt and proud reply. 
 
 Only one of those seven sons was killed during 
 the war. He was a captain of artillery, served in 
 the sieges of Savannah and Charleston, and was 
 slain at the siege of Augusta. Soon after his death 
 a British officer called on the mother, and in 
 speaking of this son, inhumanly told her that he saw 
 his brains blown out on the battle field. The reply 
 she made to the monster's observation was: "He 
 could not have died in a nobler cause." 
 
 When Charleston was besieged, she had three 
 sons in the place. She heard the report of cannon 
 on the occasion, though nearly a hundred miles 
 west of the besieged city. The wives of the sons 
 were with her, and manifested great uneasiness 
 while listening to the reports ; nor could the mother 
 Jontrol her feelings any better. While they were 
 indulging in silent and, as we may suppose, painful 
 reflections, the mother suddenly broke the silence 
 by exclaming, as she raised her hands: "Thank 
 God ! they are the children of the republic ! "* 
 
 *Vide Women of tlie Revolution, vol. 1 p. 278. 
 
THE MOTHEE'S EFFECTUAL PETITION. 
 
 What rhetoric didst thou use 
 
 To gain this mighty boon? 
 
 Addison. 
 
 James M. Wilson was one of tlie unfortunate young 
 men who engaged in the Cuban invasion, in 1851 ; and 
 he was taken prisoner and sent to Spain. His mother 
 petitioned for his release through President Fillmore, 
 and so earnest, so full of the beauty of maternal love, 
 and so touching was her appeal, that her request was 
 granted, and the' erring son was permitted to retm^n to 
 his mother's embrace. The following is a copy of the 
 letter which she addressed- to the President. It is said 
 to have called forth flattering commendation from the 
 heads of State and the highest encomiums from the 
 Majesty of Spain. 
 
 IiTew Orleans, Sept. 25, 1851. 
 
 Deak Father of ouk Country : — ^To you I look for 
 help. My dear son is one of the unfortunate prisoners 
 to Spain. He is all the child I have ; is only nineteen 
 years old, not twenty-two, as stated. He was innocent 
 and unsuspecting, and the more easily duped. He saw 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. ISl 
 
 no means of making a support for himself and me, we 
 being poor: he could get no employment; my hcjJth 
 was bad ; he therefore hoped to do something by gc)ing 
 to Cuba. But, alas ! I am worse than poor ! Death 
 would have been more welcome. His father died, 
 when he was very young, in Texas, which makes him 
 more dear to me. Oh ! cruel fate, why have I lived to 
 see this? Perhaps to suit some wise design. God's 
 will be done, not mine! I have prayed for his life 
 from the time he left ; it was spared. Dear President, 
 will it be possible for you to do any thing? Can you 
 comfort me ? I am wearing away. Methinks I cannot 
 bear up under the idea of ten years ; perhaps executed, 
 or detained for life, or the climate cause his death. I 
 feel for all of them, and pray for all. It was not my 
 will that he should go ; he was seduced into it by 
 others. Dear father of the land of my birth, can you 
 do any thing ? Will you ask for their release ? Methinks 
 you will, and it would be granted. Will you feel 
 offended with me for appealing to you for comfort? 
 If so, I beg pardon. My distress has stimulated me 
 to venture to dare to address the President. To whom 
 else could I look for comfort? If you could but see 
 me, I know you would pity me. If any one knew I 
 had approached you, they might think I presumed 
 much. Perhaps I do. Yet methinks you will view 
 it in charity. 
 
 With aU due respect to your Excellency. 
 
 OPHELIA P. TALBOT. 
 
NOTEWOETHY INTEGEITY. 
 
 Honesty, even by itself, though making many adversaries 
 . "Whom prudence might have set aside, or charity have softened. 
 Evermore will prosper at the last. 
 
 TUPPER. 
 
 We have often read an interesting story of a stock- 
 broker who, just before his death, laid a wager on pa- 
 role with a Parisian capitalist ; and a few weeks after 
 his death, the latter visited the widow and gave her to 
 understand that her late husband had lost a bet of 
 sixteen thousand francs. She went to her secretary, 
 took out her pocket-book, and counted bank notes to 
 the stated amount, when the capitalist thus addressed 
 her : " Madame, as you give such convincing proof 
 that you consider the wager binding, / have to pay 
 you sixteen thousand francs. Here is the sum, for / 
 am the loser, and not your husband." 
 
 An act that, in principle, matches the above, came 
 to light not long since in Philadelphia. During the 
 speculations of 1837-38, Mr. C, a yomig merchant of 
 that city, possessed of a handsome fortune, caught the 
 mania, entered largely into its operations, and for a 
 time was considered immensely rich. But when the 
 great revulsion occurred he was suddenly reduced to 
 
OP AMERICAN WOMEN. IS-^* 
 
 bankruptcy. His young wife immediately withdrew 
 from the circles of wealth and fashion, and adapted 
 her expenses, family and personal, to her altered cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 At the time of Mr. C.'s failure, his wife was in debt 
 CO Messrs. Stewart and Company, merchants of Phila- 
 delphia, about two hundred dollars for articles which 
 she had used personally. This debt, she had no 
 means of liquidating. It became barred by the sta- 
 tute of limitation, before Mr. C. became solvent, 
 though his circumstances gradually improved. After 
 the lapse of twelve years, and when the creditors had 
 looked upon the debt as lost, Mrs. C. was able to take 
 the principle, add to it twelve years' interest, enclose 
 the whole in a note and address it to Messrs. Stewart 
 and Company.* 
 
 * Messrs. Stewart and Company, upon tlie receipt of the money, ad- 
 dressed a note in reply to Mrs. C, in which tliey requested her ac- 
 ceptance of tlie accompanying gift, as a shght testimonial of their high 
 Appreciation of an act so honorable and so rare as to call forth un- 
 qualified admiration. Accompanying the letter was sent a superb bro- 
 cade silk dress, and some laces of exquisite texture and great value. 
 —[Philadelphia Enquirer. 
 
A FAITHFUL MOTHEE. 
 
 — Her pure and holy spirit now 
 Doth intercede at the eternal throne. 
 
 Miss Landon. 
 
 The following anecdote strikingly illustrates the 
 strength of maternal love, the beauty of faith, and 
 the efficacy of prayer. It was related by a blind 
 preacher : 
 
 ""When I was about eighteen years of age, there 
 was a dancing party in Middleboro, Massachusetts, 
 which I was solicited to attend, and act, as usual, in 
 the capacity of musician. I was fond of such scenes 
 of amusements then, and I readily assented to the 
 request. I had a pious mother; and she earnestly 
 remonstrated against my going. But, at length, when 
 all her expostulations and entreaties failed in chang- 
 ing my purpose, she said : ' Well, my son, I shall 
 not forbid your going, but remember, that all the 
 time you spend in that gay company, I shall spend 
 in praying for you at home.' I went to the ball, 
 but I was like the stricken deer, carrying an arrow 
 in his side. I began to play ; but my convictions 
 sank deeper and deeper, and I felt miserable indeed. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 185 
 
 I thought I would have given the world to have 
 been rid of that mother's prayers. At one time I 
 felt so wretched and so overwhelmed with my feel- 
 ings, that I ceased playing and dropped my musical 
 instrument from my hand. Tliere was another young 
 person there who refused to dance ; and, as 1 learned, 
 her refusal was owing to feelings similar to my owd, 
 and perhaps they arose from a similar cause. My 
 mother's prayers were not lost. That was the last 
 ball I ever attended, except one^ where I was invited 
 to play again, but went and prayed and preached 
 instead^ till the place was converted into a Bochim, 
 a place of weeping. The convictions of that wretched 
 night never wholly left me, till they left me at the 
 feet of Christ, and several of my young companions 
 in sin ere long were led to believe and obey the 
 gospel also." 
 
ANECDOTE OF MES. SPAULDESTG OF 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE.* 
 
 Through the deep wilderness, where scarce the sun 
 Can cast his darts, along the winding path 
 The pioneer is ti'eading. 
 
 Street. 
 
 An energy 
 A spirit that will not be shaken. 
 
 Willis. 
 
 Oiie of the first two settlers of Nortlnimberlaiid, 
 jS 3W Hampsliire, was Daniel Spanlding, wlio removed 
 thither in the summer of 1767. On the way to his 
 new home, with his wife and child, the last burnt 
 himself so badly at Plymouth that the mother was 
 obliged to remain and take care of him, while Mr. 
 Spaulding proceeded to the end of the journey. 
 She soon became uneasy, and, anxious to join her 
 husband, started off with her child, twenty-one 
 
 *The substance of this anecdote we find in the second number of 
 the first volume of a periodical called "Historical Collections," 
 published nearly thirty years ago at Concord, New Hampshii-e, and 
 edited by J. Farmer and J. B. Moore. The anecdote was communicated 
 by Adino N. Brackett, Esq., of Lancaster, and appeared in the June 
 number for 1822. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. IS 7 
 
 months old, to travel twenty-six miles through the 
 wilderness. A friend who had agreed to accompany 
 her the whole distance with a horse, returned after 
 traveling about one third of the way. Undaunted 
 and persevering, she pushed on, alone and on foot ; 
 waded through Baker's river with her child in her 
 arms; was overtaken Ly a heavy "thunder gust" 
 in the afternoon, and thoroughly drenched ; seated 
 herself beside a tree when darkness appeared, and 
 held her child in her lap through a long and sleep- 
 less night ; resumed her journey early the next 
 morning ; waded through a small pond, with the 
 water waist-high ; pushed on to another river, which, 
 though swollen by the rain of the preceding day 
 and looking rapid and terrifying, she forded in safety ; 
 and at eleven o'clock that day, the second of her 
 journey, she met her husband, who was on his 
 way back with a horse for her accommodation."^ 
 
 *This pioneer matron of northern l^ew Hampsliire, was living at 
 Lancaster, in 1822, then in her eighty-second year. She was a desceii- 
 dai fc, " in the third degree," of Mrs, Dustin, tlie heroine of Peaacaok. 
 
THE WIFE OF COLONEL THOMAS. 
 
 Then since there is no other way but fight or die. 
 Be resolute, my lord, for victory. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Jane Thomas, wife of Jolin Thomas, Colonel of the 
 Spartan regiment of South Carolina, was a native of 
 Chester count j, Pennsylvania. She was a woman of 
 remarkable coolness and intrepiditj, as a single act 
 of hers, in the times that tried womei^s souls, 
 plainly indicates. 
 
 Governor Rutledge having stored a quantity of 
 arms and ammunition in the house of Colonel 
 Thomas, under a guard of twenty-five men, the 
 tories were determined to obtain these munitions. 
 To this end they sent a large party under Colonel 
 More of North Carolina. Apprised of their ap- 
 proach and not daring to engage with a force so 
 superior. Colonel Thomas fled with his twenty-five 
 soldiers, taking along as much ammunition as 
 could be conveniently carried. Two young men and 
 the women were now the sole occupants of the 
 house. The tories marched up to the door, but 
 instead of being invited by the ladies to enter, they 
 were ordered off the premises. Not choosing to 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. ISM 
 
 obey the commands of the mistress, they commenced 
 firing into the logs of the house. The compliment 
 was instantly returned from the upper story ; and 
 the women now loading the guns for the older of 
 the two young men to discharge, a constant and 
 perilous firing was kept up from the chamber, which 
 soon made the assailants desperate. They forthwith 
 attempted to demolish the "batten door," but it 
 was too strongly barricaded. Finding that them- 
 selves were likely to share a worse fate then the 
 door, they finally obeyed the original orders of the 
 intrepid mistress ; withdrew from the premises and 
 fled. Mrs. Thomas soon afterwards descended, and 
 opening the door, there met her returning husband. 
 - -The ammunition saved on that occasion by the 
 courage of a woman, was the main supply, it is 
 said, of Sumter's army in the skirmishes at Rocky 
 Mount and Hanging Rock. 
 
EXEMPLARY PIETY. 
 
 I've pored o'er many a yellow page 
 
 Of ancient wisdom, and have won, 
 Perchance, a scholar's name — but sage 
 
 Or bard have never taught thy son 
 Lessons so dear, so fraught with holy truth. 
 As those his mother's faith shed on his youth. 
 
 George W. Bethune. 
 
 A lady in the district of ^aufortj Soutli Carolina, 
 at the age of seventy-six, anxions once more to 
 enjoy the society of all her children and grand- 
 children, invited them to spend a day with her. 
 The interview was permitted and was very affecting. 
 It "was conducted just as we should suppose piety 
 and the relation sustained by the parties would dic- 
 tate. She acknowledged God in this, as well as in 
 every other way. Her eldest son, who is a minister 
 of the Gospel in the Baptist denomination, com- 
 menced the exercises of the day, by reading the 
 Scriptures and prayer. The whole family then joined 
 in the song of praise to the Giver of every good 
 and perfect gift. This service was concluded by a 
 suitable exhortation from the same person. Eighty- 
 five of her regular descendants were present. Forty- 
 
OF AMERICAII WOMEN. 191 
 
 four children and grandchildren, arrived at maturity, 
 eat at the same table at dinner. Of that number 
 forty-three professed faith in Jesus Christ ; of the 
 four surviving sons of this excellent lady, two were 
 preachers of the Gospel, and the other two deacons 
 in the Baptist church. 
 
 " Two of her grandsons were also ministers of the 
 same church. When the day was drawing to a close 
 the matron called her numerous children around her, 
 gave them each salutary advice and counsel, and 
 bestowed upon all her parting blessing. The day 
 was closed by her youngest son, with exercises similar 
 to those with which it commenced. 
 
 "Mrs. lived eight years after this event, lea 
 
 ving, at her death, one hundred and fifteen lineal 
 descendants, in which large number not a swearer 
 nor drunkard is to be found."* 
 
 *Jabez Bums, D. D. 
 
BOLD ADYEKTURE OF A PATRIOTIC GIRL. 
 
 stand 
 Firm for your country : * * 
 
 * * it were a noble life. 
 To be found dead embracing ber. 
 
 Johnson. 
 
 There is strength 
 Deep bedded in our hearts, of which we reck 
 But little. 
 
 Mrs. Hemans. 
 
 "We find the following incident in the first volume 
 of American Anecdotes, " original and select." The 
 young heroine of the adventure afterwards married 
 a rich planter named Threrwits, who lived on the 
 Congaree. She has been dead more than half a 
 centmy, but her name should be remembered while 
 this rej)ublic is permitted to stand. 
 
 "At the time General Greene retreated before 
 Lord Rawdon from Ninety-Six, when he had passed 
 Broad river, he was very desirous to send an order 
 to General Sumter, who was on the Wateree, to 
 join him, that they might attack Rawdon, who had 
 divided his force. But the General could find no 
 man in that part of the state who was bold enough 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 193 
 
 to undertake so dangerous a mission. The country 
 to be passed through for manj^ miles was full of 
 blood thirsty tories, who, on every occasion that of- 
 fered, imbrued their hands in the blood of the whigs. 
 At length Emily Geiger presented herself to General 
 Greene, and proposed to act as his messenger : and 
 the General, both surprised and delighted, closed with 
 h^r proposal. He accordingly wrote a letter and 
 delivered it, and at the same time communicated 
 the contents of it verbally, to be told to Sumter in 
 case of accidents. 
 
 "Emily was young, but as to her person or ad- 
 ventures on the way, we have no further informa- 
 tion, except that she was mounted on horseback, 
 upon a side-saddle, and on the second day of her 
 journey she was intercepted by Lord Rawdon's 
 scouts. Coming from the direction of Greene's army 
 and not being able to tell an untruth without 
 blushing, Emily was suspected and confined to a 
 roc m ; and as the officer in command had the mod- 
 est/ not to search her at the time, he sent for an 
 old tory matron as more fitting for that purpose. 
 Emily was not wanting in expedient, and as soon 
 as the door was closed and the bustle a little sub- 
 si led, she ate up the letter^ piece by piece. After 
 a while the matron arrived, and "" upon searching 
 carefully, nothing was to be found of a suspicious 
 nature about the prisoner, and she would disclose 
 nothing. Suspicion being thus allayed, the officer 
 commanding the scouts suffered Emily to depart 
 
 whither she said she was bound ; but she took 
 13 
 
194 
 
 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 a route somewhat circuitous to avoid furtlier deten 
 tion, and soon after struck into the road to Sumter's 
 camp, where she arrived in safety. Emily told her 
 adventure, and delivered Green's verbal message to 
 Sumter, who, in consequence, soon after joined the 
 main army at Orangeburgh." 
 
MRS. CALDWELL AND THE TOEEES. 
 
 — The spell is thine that reaches 
 The heart 
 
 Halleck. 
 
 Prudence protects and guides us. 
 
 Young. 
 
 Rachel Caldwell was the daughter of the !Re^^ 
 Alexander Craighead and the wife of David Cald- 
 well, D. D., whose history is somewhat identified 
 with that of North Carolina. For several years he 
 was at the head of a classical school at Guilford 
 in that state, and in the vocation of teacher he 
 had, at times, the efficient aid of his faithful and 
 talented companion. She was a woman of exalted 
 piety ; and such a degree of success attended her 
 "labor of love" in the school, that it became a 
 common saying that " Dr. Caldwell makes the scho- 
 lars, and Mrs. Caldwell makes the preachers." 
 
 More than once during the Revolution, the house 
 of Dr. Caldwell, w^ho was a stanch friend of his 
 country, was assailed by tories :^' and on one occa- 
 
 * The tories not only destroyed his property, but drove him into the 
 woods, where he was often obliged to pass nights ; and some of his 
 
196 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 sion, while his wife was alone and the marauders 
 were collecting plunder, they broke open a chest or 
 drawer and took therefrom a table-cloth which was 
 the gift of her mother. She seized it the moment 
 the soldier had it fairly in his hand, and made an 
 effort to wrest it from him. Finding she would be 
 the loser in a trial of physical strength, she instinct- 
 ively resorted to the power of rhetoric. With her 
 grasp still firm on the precious article, she turned 
 to the rest of the plunderers, who stood awaiting 
 the issue of the contest, and in a beseeching tone 
 and with words warm with eloquence, asked if 
 some of their number had not wives for the love of 
 whom they would assist her, and spare the one dear 
 memorial of a mother's affection ! Her plea, though 
 short, was powerful, and actually moved one man 
 to tears. With rills of sympathy running down 
 his cheeks, he assured her he had a wife — a wife 
 that he loved — and that for her sake the table- 
 cloth should be given up. This was accordingly 
 done, and no further rudeness was offered. 
 
 In the fall of 1780, a " way-worn and weary " 
 stranger, bearing dispatches from Washington to 
 Greene, stopped at her house and asked for suppei 
 and lodgings. Before he had eaten, the house began 
 to be surrounded by tories, who were in pursuit of 
 
 escapes from captivity or death are said to have been almost 
 miraculous. — He resumed his labors as teacher and pastor after tho 
 war ; and continued to preach till his ninetj-sixth year. He died 
 in 1824, at the age of ninety-uine. His wife died the following year, 
 in the eighty-seventh of her age. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 197 
 
 him. Mrs. Caldwell led him out at a back-door, 
 unseen in the darkness, and ordered him to climb 
 a large locust tree, and there remain till the house 
 was plundered and the pursuers had departed. 
 He did so. Mrs. Caldwell lost her property, but 
 her calmness and prudence saved the express, 
 and that was what most concerned the patriotic 
 woman. 
 
THE MOTHEE OF EAISTDOLPH 
 
 She led me first to God ; 
 Her words and prayers were my young spirit's dew; 
 
 For wJien she used to leave 
 
 The fireside every eve, 
 I knew it was for prayer tliat she withdrew. 
 
 PlERPONT. 
 
 The biographers of Jolin Randolph mention the 
 Interesting fact that his mother taught him to pray. 
 This all-important maternal duty made an impres- 
 sion on his heart. He lived at a period when 
 skepticism was popular, particularly in some political 
 circles in which he had occasion to mingle; and 
 he has left on record his testimony in regard to 
 the influence of his mother's religious instruction, 
 kjpealdng of the subject of infidelity to an intimate 
 friend, he once made the following acknowledg- 
 ment : 
 
 " I believe I should have been swept away by the 
 iood of French infidelity if it had not been for 
 one thing — the remembrance of the time when my 
 fainted mothor used to make me kneel by her side, 
 t iking my little hands folded in hers, and cause me 
 t) repeat the Lord's Prayer." 
 
COEISTELIA BEEKMAK 
 
 The smallest worm will turn when trodden on. 
 And doves will peck, in safeguard of their brood. 
 
 ShA£SF£A&£. 
 
 The vaunts 
 And menace of the vengeful enemy 
 Pass like the gust, that roared and died away 
 In the distant tree. 
 
 Coleridge. 
 
 Mrs. Cornelia Beekman was a daughter of Pierre 
 Yan Cortlandt, Lieutenant Governor of 'New York 
 from 1YY7 to 1795; and she seems to have inhe- 
 rited her father's zeal for the rights of his country. 
 She was born at the Cortlandt manor house, "an 
 old fashioned stone mansion situated on the banks 
 of the Croton river," in 1752 ; was married when 
 about seventeen or eighteen, to Gerard G. Beek- 
 man ; and died on the fourteenth of March, 1847. 
 A few anecdotes will illustrate the noble character- 
 istics of her nature.* 
 
 When the British were near her residence, which 
 
 * For a fuller account of lier life, see the second volume of Mrs. 
 EUet's Vv^omen of tlie Revolution, to which work we are indebtt-d 
 for the substance of these anecdotes. 
 
200 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 was a short distance from Peekskill, a soldier en- 
 tered the house one day and went directly to the 
 closet, sa}dng, in reply to a question she pnt to him, 
 that he wanted some brandy. She reproved him 
 for his boldness and want of com-tesy, when he 
 threatened to stab her with a bayonet. Unalarmed 
 by his oath-charged threats — although an old, infirm 
 negro was the only aid at hand — she in turn threat- 
 ened him, declaring that she would call her husband 
 and have his conduct reported to his commander. 
 Her sterness and intrepidity, coupled with her threats, 
 subdued the insolent coward, and, obeying her orders, 
 he marched out of the house. 
 
 A party of tories, under command of Colonels 
 Bayard and Fleming, once entered her house, and, 
 with a great deal of impudence and in the most 
 insulting tone, asked if she was not "the daughter 
 of that old rebel, Pierre Yan Cortlandt ? " "I am 
 the daughter of Pierre Yan Cortlandt, but it becomes 
 not such as you to call my father a rebel," was her 
 dauntless reply. The person who put the question 
 now raised his musket, at which menacing act, she 
 coolly reprimanded him and ordered him out of 
 doors. His heart melted beneath the fire of her eye, 
 and, abashed, he sneaked away. 
 
 In one instance, a man named John Webb, better 
 known at that time as "Lieutenant Jack," left in 
 her charge a valise which contained a new suit 
 of uniform and some gold. He stated he would 
 send for it when he wanted it, and gave her par- 
 ticular directions not to deliver it to any one without 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 201 
 
 a written order from himself or his brother Samuel. 
 About two weeks afterwards, a man named Smith 
 rode up to the door in haste, and asked her husband, 
 who was without, for Lieutenant Jack's valise. She 
 knew Smith, and had little confidence in his pro- 
 fessed whig principles ; so she stepped to the door 
 and reminded her husband that it would bv3 neces- 
 sary for the ^messenger to show his order before 
 the valise could be given up. 
 
 "You know me very well, Mrs. Beekman; and 
 when I assure you that Lieutenant Jack sent me 
 for the valise, you will not refuse to deliver it to 
 me, as he is greatly in want of his uniform." 
 
 "I do know you very well — too well to give you 
 the valise without a written order from the owner 
 or the Colonel." 
 
 Soon after this brief colloquy, Smith wen away 
 without the valise, and it was afterwards asce tained 
 that he was a rank tory, and at that very hour in 
 league with the British. Lideed Major Andre was 
 concealed in his house that day, and had Smith got 
 possession of "Webb's imiform, as the latter and 
 Andre were about the same size, it is likely the 
 celebrated spy would have escaped and changed 
 the reading of a brief chapter of American history. 
 Who can tell how much this republic is indebted 
 o the prudence, integrity, courage and patriotism 
 )f Cornelia Beekman? 
 
THE MOTHER OF WEST. 
 
 wondrous power I how little understood — 
 Entrusted to the mother's mind alone — 
 
 To fashion genius, form the soul for good, 
 Inspire a West, or train a "Washington. 
 
 Mrs. Hale. 
 
 When Benjamin West was seven years old, he was 
 left, one summer day, with the charge of an infant 
 niece. As it lay in the cradle and he was engaged in 
 fanning away the flies, the motion of the fan pleased 
 the child, and caused it to smile. Attracted by the 
 charms thus created, young West felt his instinctive 
 passion aroused ; and seeing paper, pen and some red 
 and black ink on a table, he eagerly seized them and 
 made his first attempt at portrait painting. Just as 
 he had finished his maiden task, his mother and sis- 
 ter entered. He tried to conceal what he had done, 
 but his confusion arrested his mother's attention, and 
 she asked him what he had been doing. With reluc- 
 tance and timidity, he handed her the paper, begging, 
 at the same time, that she would not be offended. 
 Examining the drawing for a short time, she turned to 
 her daughter and, with a smile, said, "I declare, he 
 has made a likeness of Sally." She then gave him a 
 
WEST AND ins MOTHER. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 203 
 
 tbnd kiss, which so encouraged him that he promised 
 her some drawings of the flowers which she was then 
 holding, if she wished to have them. 
 
 The next year a cousin sent him a box of colors and 
 pencils, with large quantities of canvas prepared for 
 the easel, and half a dozen engravings. Early in the 
 morning after their reception, he took all his materials 
 into the garret, and for several days forgot all about 
 school. His mother suspected that the box was the 
 cause of his neglect of his books, and going into the 
 garret and finding him busy at a picture, she was 
 about to reprimand him ; but her eye fell on some of 
 his compositions, and her anger cooled at once. She 
 was so pleased with them that she loaded him with 
 kisses and promised to secure his father's pardon for 
 his neglect of school. 
 
 How much the world is indebted to Mrs. "West for 
 her early and constant encouragement of the immor- 
 tal artist. He often used to say, after his reputation 
 was established, "J/y motlier^s hiss raade me a 
 painter / " 
 
HEEOIC ENDUEAl^CE. 
 
 *Tis not now wlio is stout and bold. 
 But who bears hunger best and cold. 
 
 Butler. 
 
 On the twenty-seventh of July, 1755, Mrs. Howe, 
 of Hinsdale, ISTew Hampshire, with seven children 
 and two other women and their children, was taken 
 captive by the Indians, and marched through the 
 wilderness to Crown Point. There Mrs. Howe, with 
 some of the other prisoners, remained several days. 
 The rest were conducted to Montreal to be sold, but 
 the French refusing to buy them, they were all 
 brought back, except Mrs. Howe's youngest daughter, 
 who was presented to Governor De Yaudreuil. 
 
 Ere long the whole party started for St. Johns 
 by water. Night soon came on ; a storm arose ; 
 the darkness became intense; the canoes separated, 
 and just before day Mrs. Howe was landed on the 
 beach, ignorant of the destiny of her children. 
 "Raising a pillow of earth with her hands, she laid 
 herself down to rest with her infant on her bosom. 
 A toilsome day's journey brought her and her cap- 
 tors to St. Johns, and pressing onward they soon 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 205 
 
 reached St. Francis, the home of the latter. A 
 council having been called and the customary cere- 
 monies performed, Mrs. Howe, with her infant left 
 to her care, was put in the charge of a squaw, 
 whom she was ordered to call mother. 
 
 "At the approach of winter, the squaw, yielding 
 to her earnest solicitations, set out with Mrs. Howe 
 and her child, for Montreal, to sell them to the 
 French. On the journey both she and her infant 
 were in danger of perishing from hunger and cold; 
 the lips of the child being at times so benumbed, 
 as to be incapable of imbibing its proper nourish- 
 ment. After her arrival in the city, she was offered 
 to a French lady ; who, seeing the child in her 
 arms, exclaimed, 'I will not buy a woman, who 
 has a child to look after.' I shall not attempt 
 to describe the feelings with which this rebuff was 
 received by a person who had no higher ambi- 
 tion than to become a slave. Few of our race have 
 hearts made of such unyielding materials, as not 
 to be broken by long-continued abuse; and Mrs. 
 Howe was not one of this number. Chilled with 
 cold, and pinched with hunger, she saw in the kitchen 
 of this inhospitable house some small pieces of bread, 
 floating in a pail amid other fragments, destined to 
 feed swine; and eagerly skimmed them for herself. 
 When her Indian mother found that she could not 
 dispose of her, she returned by water to St. Francis, 
 where she soon died of small pox, which she had 
 caught at Montreal. Speedily after, the Indians 
 commenced their winter hunting. Mrs. Howe was 
 
206 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 then ordered to return her child to the captors. 
 The babe clung to her bosom ; and she was obliged 
 to force it away. They carried it to a place called 
 'Messiskow,' on the borders of the river Missiscoui, 
 near the north end of lake Champlain upon the 
 eastern shore. The mother soon followed, and found 
 it neglected, lean, and almost perishing with hunger. 
 As she pressed its face to her cheek, the eager, 
 half-starved infant bit her with violence. For three 
 Qights she was permitted to cherish it in her bosom ; 
 but in the day-time she was confined to a neighboring 
 wigwam, where she was compelled to hear its un- 
 ceasing cries of distress, without a possibility of 
 contributing to its relief. 
 
 ' "The third day the Indians carried her several 
 miles up the lake. The following night she was 
 alarmed by what is usually called the great earth- 
 quake, which shook the region around her with violent 
 concussions. Here, also, she was deserted for two 
 nights in an absolute wilderness ; and, when her 
 Indian connections returned, was told by them that 
 two of her children were dead. Yery soon after, 
 she received certain information of the death of 
 her infant. Amid the anguish awakened by these 
 melancholy tidings, she saw a distant volume of 
 smoke ; and was strongly inclined to make her 
 way to the wigwam from which it ascended. As 
 she entered the door, she met one of the children, 
 reported to be dead; and to her great consolation 
 found that he was in comfortable circumstances. A 
 good-natured Indian soon after informed her, that 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 207 
 
 the other was alive on the opposite side of the 
 lake, at the distance of a few miles only. Upon 
 this information she obtained leave to be absent 
 for a single day; and, with the necessary direc- 
 tions from her informant, set out for the place. 
 On her way she found her child, lean and hungry, 
 and proceeded with it to the wigwam. A small 
 piece of bread, presented to her by the Indian family 
 in which she lived, she had carefully preserved for 
 this unfortunate boy; but, to avoid offending the 
 family in which he lived, was obliged to distribute 
 it in equal shares to all the children. The little 
 creature had been transported at the sight of his 
 mother ; and, when she announced her departure, 
 fell at her feet, as if he had been dead. Yet she 
 was compelled to leave him; and satisfied herself, 
 as far as she was able, by commending him to 
 the protection of God. The family in which she 
 lived, passed the following summer at St. Johns. 
 It was composed of the daughter and son-in-law of 
 her late mother. The son-in-law went out early in 
 the season on an expedition against the English set- 
 tlements. At their return, the party had a drinking 
 frolic, their usual festival after excursions of this 
 nature. Drunkenness regularly enhances the bodily 
 strength of a savage, and stimulates his mind to 
 madness. In this situation he will insult, abuse, 
 and not unfrequently murder, his nearest friends. 
 The wife of this man had often been a sufferer by 
 his intemperance. She therefore proposed to Mrs. 
 Howe that thev should withdraw themselves from 
 
£08 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 the wigwam until i:lie effects of Ms present intoxi- 
 cation were over. They accordingly withdrew. Mrs. 
 Howe returned first, and found him surly and ill- 
 natured, because his wife was absent. In the 
 violence of his resentment he took Mrs. Howe, 
 hurried her to St. Johns, and sold her for a trifling 
 sum to a French gentleman, named Saccapee. 
 
 " Upon a little reflection, however, the Indian 
 perceived that he had made a foolish bargain. In 
 a spirit of resentment he threatened to assassinate 
 Mrs. Howe ; and declared that if he could not 
 accomplish his design, he would set fire to the 
 fort. She was therefore carefully secreted, and the 
 fort watchfully guarded, until the violence of his 
 passion was over. When her alarm was ended, 
 she found her situation as happy in the family, aa 
 a state of servitude would permit. Her new master 
 and mistress were kind, liberal, and so indulgent 
 as rarely to refuse anything that she requested. In 
 this manner they enabled her frequently to befriend 
 other English prisoners, who, from time to time, were 
 brought to St. Johns. 
 
 "Yet even in this humane family she met with 
 new trials. Monsieur Saccapee, and his son, an 
 officer in the French army, became at the same time 
 passionately attached to her. This singular fact is 
 a forcible proof that her person, mind, and man- 
 ners, were unusually agreeable. ITor was her situa- 
 tion less perplexing than singular. The good will 
 of the whole family was indispensable to her comfort, 
 if not to her safety; and her purity she was deter- 
 mined to preserve at the hazard of lier lif(^ In the 
 
OF AlVrERTCAN WOMEN. 209 
 
 liouse where both her lovers resided, conversed witli 
 lier every day, and, together with herself, were 
 continually under the eye of her mistress, the lovers 
 a father and a son, herself a slave, and one of 
 them her master, it will be easily believed that 
 she met with very serious embarrassments in accom- 
 plishing her determination. In this situation she 
 made known her misfortunes to Colonel Peter 
 Schuyler of Albany, then a prisoner at St. Johns. 
 As soon as he had learned her situation he repre- 
 sented it to the Governor De Yaudreuil. The 
 Governor immediately ordered young Saccapee into 
 the army; and enjoined on his father a just and 
 kind treatment of Mrs. Howe. His humanity did 
 not stop here. Being informed that one of her 
 daughters was in danger of being married to an 
 Indian of St. Francis, he rescued her from this 
 miserable destiny, and placed her in a nunnery 
 with her sister. Here they were both educated as 
 his adopted children. 
 
 "By the good offices of Colonel Schuyler, also, 
 who advanced twenty-seven hundred livi-es for that 
 purpose, and by the assistance of several other 
 gentlemen, she was enabled to ransom herself, and 
 her four sons. With these children she set out for 
 New England in the autumn of 1758, under the 
 protection of Colonel Schuyler, leaving her two 
 daughters behind.* As she was crossing lake Cham- 
 
 * After the treaty of peace at Paris, Mrs. Howe went to Canada 
 and brought home the younger daughter, who left the nunnery with 
 a great deal of reluctance. The older went to France with Monsieur 
 Po YaudreuU, and was there married to a man named Louis. 
 14 
 
210 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 plain, young Saccapee came on board the boat, in 
 which she was conveyed; gave her a handsome 
 present; and bade her adieu. Colonel Schuyler 
 being obliged to proceed to Albany with more ex- 
 pedition than was convenient for his fellow travelers, 
 left them in the care of Major Putnam, afterwards 
 Major-General Putnam. From this gentleman she 
 received every kind office, which his well known 
 humanity could furnish; and arrived without any 
 considerable misfortune at the place of their des« 
 tination." * 
 
 * Dwiglit's Trayels. 
 
MATEK^AL HEEOISM 
 
 Is tliere a man, into tlie lion's den 
 
 Who dares intrude^ to snatcli his young away ? 
 
 Thomson, 
 
 During the campaign of 1Y77, a soldier of the 
 Fifty-fifth regiment was sitting with his wife at 
 breakfast, when a bomb entered the tent, and fell 
 between the table and a bed where their infant 
 was sleeping. The mother urged her husband to go 
 round the bomb and seize the child, his dress being, 
 from the position of things, more favorable than hers 
 for the prosecution of the dangerous task: but he 
 refused, and running out of the tent, begged his 
 wife to follow, saying that the fusee was just ready 
 to communicate with the deadly combustibles. The 
 fond mother, instead of obeying, hastily tucked up 
 her garments to prevent their coming in contact 
 with the bomb; leaped past it; caught the child, 
 and in a moment was out of danger. 
 
 In December, 1850, the house of Peter Knight, 
 of' Bath, Maine, caught fire, and a small child, asleep 
 in the room where the flames burst out, would have 
 perished but for the self-possession and daring of its 
 
212 
 
 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 rn other. One or two iiiisuccessfiil attempts had been 
 made by others to rescue it, when the mother, always 
 the last to despair, made a desperate effort, and se- 
 cured the prize. When the two were taken from 
 the window of the second story, the dress of Mrs 
 Knight was in flames ! 
 
A MODEEN DOKCAS. 
 
 *Tis truth divine, exhibited on earth, 
 Gives charity her being. 
 
 COWPER. 
 
 Isabella, tlie wife of Dr. John Graham, was bom 
 in Scotland, on the twenty-ninth of July, 1742. At 
 the age of seventeen she became a member of the 
 church in Paisley of which the Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, 
 afterwards President of Princeton college, was the 
 pastor. Dr. Graham was a physician of the same 
 town. Her marriage took place in 1765. The next 
 year Dr. Graham was ordered to join his regiment 
 then stationed in Canada. After spending a few 
 months at Montreal, he removed to Fort Niagaraj 
 where he remained in the garrison four years. 
 
 Just before the Revolutionary war the sixteenth 
 rogiment of Royal Americans was ordered to the 
 island of Antigua. Thither Dr. Graham removed 
 with his family, and there he died in 1774. Mrs. 
 Graham then returned to her native land. 
 
 In 1789 she came to this country, and permanently 
 settled in the city of l^ew York. She there opened 
 a school for young ladies, and gained a high reputa- 
 
214 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 tion in her profession. She united with the Pres- 
 byterian church of which John Mason, D. D., was 
 pastor, and was noted, through all the latter years 
 of her life, for the depth of her piety and her 
 Christian benevolence. She made it a rule to give 
 a tenth part of her earnings to religious and 
 charitable purposes. In 1795 she received, at one 
 time, an advance of a thousand pounds on the sale 
 of a lease which she held on some building lots; 
 and not being used to such large profits, she said, 
 on receiving the money, "Quick, quick, let me ap- 
 propriate the tenth before my heart grows hard." 
 
 Two years afterwards, a society was organized and 
 chartered, for the relief of poor widows ; and 
 Mrs. Graham was appointed first directress. Each 
 of the managers had a separate district, and she 
 had the superintendence of the whole. A house was 
 purchased by the society, where work was received 
 for the employment of the widows; and a school 
 was opened for the instruction of their children. 
 "Besides establishing this school, Mrs. Graham se- 
 lected some of the widows, best qualified for the 
 task, and engaged them, for a small compensation, 
 to open day schools for the instruction of the child- 
 ren of widows, in distant parts of the city: she 
 also established two Sabbath schools, one of which 
 she superintended herself, and the other she placed 
 under the care of her daughter. Wherever she niet 
 with Christians sick and in poverty, she visited and 
 comforted them ; and in some instances opened 
 small subscription lists to provide for their support. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 215 
 
 • 
 
 Slie attended occasionally for some years at the 
 Alms House for the instruction of the children there, 
 in religious knowledge: in this work she was much 
 assisted by a humble and pious female friend, who 
 was seldom absent from it on the Lord's day. 
 
 "It was often her custom to leave home after 
 breakfast, to take with her a few rolls of bread, 
 and return in the evening about eight o'clock. Her 
 only dinner on such days was her bread, and per- 
 haps some soup at the Soup House, established by 
 the Humane Society for the poor, over which one 
 of her widows had been, at Ifer recommendation, 
 appointed." * 
 
 In the winter of 1804-5, before a Tract or Bible 
 Society had been formed in New York, she visited 
 between two and three hundred of the poorer families, 
 and supplied them with a Bible where they were 
 destitute. She also distributed tracts which were 
 written, at her request, by a friend, "and lest it 
 might be said it was cheap to give advice, she 
 usually gave a small sum of money along with 
 the tracts." 
 
 On the fifteenth of March, 1806, a society was 
 organized in ISTew York for providing an Asylum 
 for Orphan Children; and Mrs. Graham occupied 
 the chair on the occasion. Her sympathies were 
 strongly enlisted in this organization, and she was 
 one of the trustees at the time of her death. 
 
 "In the winter of 1807-8, when the suspension 
 
 * Mrs. Bethune's Life of Mrs. Graham, abridged. 
 
216 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 of commerce by tlie embargo, rendered the situ- 
 ation of the poor more destitute than ever, Mrs. 
 Graham adopted a plan best calculated in her view 
 to detect the idle applicant for charity, and at the 
 same time to furnish employment for the more wor- 
 thy amongst the female poor. She purchased flax, 
 and lent wheels where applicants had none. Such 
 as were industrious took the work with thankful- 
 ness, and were paid for it ; those who were beggars 
 by profession, never kept their word to return for 
 the flax or the wheel. The flax thus spun was af- 
 terwards woven, bleached, and made into table-clotks 
 and towels for family use." ^ 
 
 When the Magdalen Society was established by 
 some gentlemen, in 1811, a board of ladies was elec- 
 ted for the purpose of superintending the internal 
 management of the house ; and Mrs. Graham was 
 chosen President. This ofiice she continued to hold 
 till her death. The next year the trustees of the 
 Lancasterian School solicited the services of several 
 women to instruct the pupils in the catechism. Mrs. 
 Graham cheerfully assisted in this task, instruction 
 being given one afternoon in each week. 
 
 " In the spring of 1814 she was requested to unite 
 with some ladies, in forming a Society for the Pro- 
 motion of Industry amongst the poor. The Corpora- 
 tion of the city having returned a favorable answer 
 to their petition for assistance, and provided a house, 
 a meeting of the Society was held, and Mrs. Graham 
 once more was called to the chair. It was the last 
 
 * Miv;. Eethune. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. i>17 
 
 • 
 
 time she was to preside at the formation of a new 
 society. Her articulation, once strong and clear, was 
 now observed to have become more feeble. The 
 ladies present listened to her with affectionate atten- 
 tion; her voice broke upon the ear as a pleasant 
 sound that was passing away. She consented to have 
 her name inserted in the list of managers, to give 
 what assistance her age would permit in forwarding 
 so beneficent a work. Although it pleased God to 
 make her cease from her labors, before the House 
 of Industry was opened, yet the work was carried 
 on by others, and prospered. Between four and five 
 hundred women were employed and paid during the 
 following winter. The Corporation declared in strong 
 terms their approbation of the result, and enlarged 
 their donation, with a view to promote the same 
 undertaking for the succeeding winter." 
 
 Mrs. Grraham died on the twenty-seventh of July, 
 1814. Of no woman of the age may it be said with 
 more propriety, as it was of Dorcas : " This woman 
 was full of good works and alms-deeds, which she 
 did." Yet few women are more humble than was 
 Mrs. Graham, or think less of their benevolent deeds. 
 Her daughter, Mrs. Bethune, writing of her decease, 
 says that she departed in peace, not trusting in her 
 wisdom or virtue, like the philosophers of Greece and 
 Rome ; not even, like Addison, calling on the profli- 
 gate to see a good man die ; but, like Howard, afraid 
 that her good works might have a wrong place in the 
 estimate of her hope, her chief glory was that of a 
 " sinner saved by grace." 
 
SAEAH HOFFMAIS. 
 
 still to a stricken brother turn. 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 In the act of incorporation of the Widow's Society, 
 established in the city of New York, in 1797, with 
 the name of Mrs. Graham, is associated that of Mrs. 
 Sarah Hoffinan. This lady was the daughter of 
 David Ogden, one of the judges of the Supreme 
 Court of l^ew Jersey, before the elevation of the 
 provinces into states. She was born at ISTewark, on 
 the eighth of September, 1742 ; and mamed Mcho- 
 las Hoffman, in 1762. She early took delight in 
 doing good, being thus prompted by deep religious 
 principle. Cautious and discriminating, her chari- 
 ties were bestowed judiciously, and she was able to 
 do much good without the largest means. In her 
 benevolent operations, however, she usually acted in 
 an associated capacity. 
 
 As already intimated, she was a member of the 
 society formed " for the relief of poor widows with 
 small children." That this institution prospered un- 
 dei the control of such women as Mrs. Hoffman and 
 Mrs. Graham, may be inferred from their report 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 219 
 
 made in April, 1803. " N^inety-eight widows and 
 two hundred and twenty-three children," this docu- 
 ment states, " were brought through the severity of 
 the winter with a considerable degree of comfort." 
 
 Mrs. Hoifman, Mrs. Graham and their associates, 
 often perambulated the districts of poverty and dis- 
 ease, from morning till night, entering the huts of 
 want and desolation, and carrying comfort and con- 
 solation to many a despairing heart. They clambered 
 to the highest and meanest garrets, and descended 
 to the lowest, darkest and dankest cellars, to admi- 
 nister to the wants of the destitute, the sick, and the 
 dying. They took with them medicine as well as 
 food; and were accustomed to administer Christian 
 counsel or consolation, as the case required, to the 
 infirm in body and the wretched in lieart. They 
 even taught many poor creatures, who seemed to 
 doubt the existence of an overruling Providence, to 
 pray to Him whose laws they had broken and 
 thereby rendered themselves miserable.* 
 
 In Mrs. Hoffinan's character, to tenderness of feel- 
 ing were added great firmness, strength of mind, 
 and moral courage. She was often seen in the midst 
 of contagion and suffering where the cheek of the 
 warrior would blanch with fear. She exposed her 
 own life, however, not like the warrior, to destroy, 
 but to save ; and hundreds were saved by her humane 
 efforts, combined with those of her co-workers. Her 
 
 • Knapp's Female Biography. 
 
220 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 life beautifully exemplified the truth of what Crabbe 
 says of woman ; 
 
 In extremes of cold and heat, 
 
 Where wandering man may trace his kind ; 
 
 Wherever grief and want retreat. 
 In woman they compassion find. 
 
 And if, as the poet Grainger asserts, 
 
 The height of virtue is to serve mankind, 
 
 Mrs. Hoffman reached a point towards which many 
 aspire, but above which few ascend. 
 
HEROISM OF SCHOHAEIE "WOMEK 
 
 Invaders 1 vain your battles' steel and fire. 
 
 Halleck. 
 
 During the struggle for Independence, there were 
 three noted forts in the Schoharie settlement, called 
 the Upper, Middle and Lower; and when, in the 
 autumn of 1780, Sir John Johnson sallied forth from 
 ^Niagara, with his five hundred or more British, tory 
 and German troops, and made an attack on these 
 forts, an opportunity was given for the display of 
 patriotism and courage, as well by the women of the 
 settlement as by the men. 
 
 When the Middle fort was invested, an heroic and 
 noted ranger named Murphy, used his rifle balls so 
 fast as to need an additional supply ; and, anticipa- 
 ting his wants, Mrs. Angelica Yrooman caught his 
 bullet mould, some lead and an iron spoon, ran to her 
 father's tent, and there moulded a quantity of bullets 
 amid 
 
 "the shout 
 Of battle, the barbarian yell, the bray 
 Of dissonant instruments, the clang of arms. 
 The shriek of agony, the groan of death." 
 
 While the firing was kept up at the Middle fort, 
 
222 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 great anxiety prevailed at the Upper; and during 
 this time Captain Hager, who commanded the latter, 
 gave orders that the women and children should 
 retire to a long cellar, which he specified, should the 
 enemy attack him. A young lady named Mary Hag- 
 gidorn, on hearing these orders, went to Captain 
 Hager and addressed him as follows : — " Captain, I 
 shall not go into that cellar. Should the enemy 
 come, I will take a spear, which I can use as well as 
 any man^ and help defend the fort." The Captain, 
 seeing her determination, made the following reply: 
 — "Then take a spear, Mary, and be ready at the 
 pickets to repel an attack." She cheerfully obeyed, 
 and held the spear at the picket, till " huzzas for 
 the American flag" burst on her ear, and told that 
 all was safe.* 
 
 Vide History of Scholiaiie county, p. 410 — II. 
 
A STEKLIISTG PATEIOT. 
 
 With nerve to wield the battle-brand. 
 
 And join the border-fray, 
 They shrank not from the foeman, 
 
 They quailed not in the fight. 
 But cheered their husbands through the day, 
 
 And soothed them through the night. 
 
 "W. D. Gallaghee. 
 
 The most noted heroine of the Mohawk valley, and 
 one of the bravest and noblest mothers of the Kevo- 
 lution, was l^ancy Yan Alstine. Her maiden name 
 was Quackinbnsh. She was born near Canajoharie, 
 about the year 1733, and was married to Martin J, 
 Yan Alstine, at the age of eighteen. He settled in 
 the valley of the Mohawk, and occupied the Yan 
 Alstine family mansion. Mrs. Yan Alstine was the 
 mother of fifteen children. She died at "Wampsville, 
 Madison county, in 1831. 
 
 In the month of August, 1780, an army of Indians 
 and tories, led on by Brant, rushed into the Mohawk 
 valley, devastated several settlements, and killed 
 many of the inhabitants : and during the two follow^- 
 iiig months. Sir John Johnson, made a descent and 
 finished the work w^hich Brant had besrun. The two 
 
224 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 almost completely destroyed the settlements throngh- 
 out the valley. It was during those trying times 
 that Mrs. Yan Alstine performed a portion of her 
 heroic exploits which are so interestingly related by 
 Mrs. EUet. 
 
 " While the enemy, stationed at Johnstown, were 
 laying waste the comitry, parties continually going 
 about to murder the inhabitants and burn their 
 dwellings, the neighborhood in which Mrs. Yan Al- 
 stine lived remained in comparative quiet, though 
 the settlers trembled as each sun arose, lest his set- 
 ting beams should fall on their ruined homes. Most 
 of the men were absent, and when, at length, intelli- 
 gence came that the destroyers were approaching, the 
 people w^ere almost distracted -with terror, Mrs. Yan 
 Alstine called her neighbors together, endeavored to 
 calm their fears, and advised them to make imme- 
 diate arrangements for removing to an island, belong- 
 ing to her husband, near the opposite side of the 
 river. She knew that the spoilers would be in too 
 great haste to make any attempt to cross, and 
 thought if some articles were removed, they might 
 be induced to suppose the inhabitants gone to a 
 greater distance. The seven families in the neigh- 
 borhood were in a few hom^s upon the island, 
 having taken with them many things necessary for 
 their comfort during a short stay. Mrs. Yan Al- 
 stine remained herself to the last, then crossed in 
 the boat, helping to draw it far up on the beach. 
 Scarcely had they secreted themselves before they 
 heard the dreaded warwhoop, and descried the Indian? 
 
OF AMERICAiq- WOMEN. 225 
 
 m the distance. It was not long before one and ano- 
 ther saw the homes they loved in flames. When the 
 savages came to Yan Alstine's house, they were about 
 to fire that also, but the chief, interfering, informed 
 them that Sir John would not be pleased if that 
 house were burned — the owner having extended civi- 
 lities to the baronet before the commencement of 
 hostilities. ' Let the old wolf keep his den,' he said, 
 and the house was left unmolested. The talking of 
 the Indians could be distinctly heard from the island, 
 and Mrs. Yan Alstine rejoiced that she was thus 
 enabled to give shelter to the houseless families who 
 had fled with her. The fugitives, however, did not 
 deem it prudent to leave their place of concealment 
 for several days, the smoke seen in different direc- 
 tions too plainly indicating that the work of devas- 
 tation was going on. 
 
 " The destitute families remained at Yan Alstine's 
 house till it was deemed prudent to rebuild their 
 homes. Later in the following autumn an incident 
 occurred which brought much trouble upon them. 
 Three men from the neighborhood of Canajoharie, 
 who had deserted the whig cause and joined the 
 British, came back from Canada as spies, and were 
 detected and apprehended. Their execution followed ; 
 two were shot, and one, a bold, adventurous fellow, 
 named Harry Harr, was hung in Mr. Yan Alstine's 
 orchard. Their prolonged absence causing some 
 uneasiness to their friends in Canada, some Indians 
 were sent to reconnoitre and learn something of them. 
 
 It happened that they arrived on the day of Harr's 
 15 
 
226 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 execution, which they witnessed from a neighboring 
 hill. They returned immediately with the informa 
 tion, and a party was dispatched — it is said by 
 Brant — to revenge the death of the spies upon the 
 inhabitants. Their continued shouts of ' Aha, Harry 
 Harr!' while engaged in pillaging and destroying, 
 showed that such was their purpose. In their pro- 
 gress of devastation, they came to the house of Yan 
 Alstine, where no preparations had been made for 
 defence, the family not expecting an attack, or not 
 being aware of the near approach of the enemy. 
 Mrs. Yan Alstine was personally acquainted mth 
 Brant, and it may have been owing to this circum- 
 stance that the members of the family were not 
 killed or carried away as prisoners. The Indians 
 came upon them by surprise, entered the house 
 without ceremony, and plundered and destroyed 
 everything in their way. Mrs. Yan Alstine saw her 
 most valued articles, brought from Holland, broken 
 one after another, till the house was strewed with 
 fragments. As they ]3assed a large mirror without 
 demolishing it, she hoped it might be saved ; but 
 presently two of the savages led in a colt from the 
 citable, and the glass being laid in the hall, com- 
 pelled the animal to walk over it. The beds which 
 they could not carry away, they ripped open, sha- 
 king out the feathers and taking the ticks with them. 
 They also took all the clothing. One young Indian, 
 attracted by the brilliancy of a pair of inlaid buckles 
 on the shoes of the aged grandmother seated in the 
 corner, rudely snatched them from her feet, tore off 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 227 
 
 tue buckles, and flung the shoes in her face. Ano- 
 ther took her shawl from her neck, threatening to 
 kill her if resistance were offered. The eldest 
 daughter, seeing a young savage carrying off a bas- 
 ket containing a hat and cap her father had brought 
 her from Philadelphia, and which she highly prized, 
 followed him, snatched her basket, and after a 
 struggle succeeded in pushing him down. She then 
 fled to a pile of hemp and hid herself, throwing 
 the basket into it as far as she could. The other 
 Indians gathered round, and as the young one rose 
 clapped their hands, shouting ' Brave girl !' while 
 he skulked away to escape their derision. During 
 the struggle Mrs. Yan Alstine had called to her 
 daughter to give up the contest ; but she insisted 
 that her basket should not be taken. Having gone 
 through the house, the intruders went up to the 
 kitchen chamber, where a quantity of cream in large 
 jars had been brought from the dairy, and threw 
 the jars down stairs, covering the floor with the^'r 
 contents. They then broke the window glass through- 
 out the house, and unsatisfied with the plunder they 
 had collected, bribed a man servant by the promise 
 of his clothes and a portion of the booty to show 
 them where some articles had been hastily secreted. 
 Mrs. Yan Alstine had just finished cutting out win- 
 ter clothing for her family — ^ which consisted of her 
 mother-in-law, her husband and twelve children, with 
 two black servants — and had stowed it away in 
 barrels. The servant treacherously disclosed the hi- 
 ding place, and the clothing was soon added to the 
 
228 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 rest of the booty. Mrs. Yan Alstine reproached the 
 man for his perfidy, which she assured him would be 
 punished, not rewarded by the savages, and her words 
 were verified ; for after they had forced him to assist 
 in securing their plunder, they bound him and put 
 him in one of their wagons, telling him his treachery 
 to the palefaces deserved no better treatment. 
 The provisions having been carried away, the family 
 subsisted on corn, which they pounded and made 
 into cakes. They felt much the want of clothing, 
 and Mrs. Yan Alstine gathered the silk of milk- 
 weed, of which, mixed with flax, she spun and wove 
 garments. The inclement season was now approach- 
 ing, and they suffered severely from the want of 
 window glass, as well as their bedding, woolen 
 clothes, and the various articles, including cooking 
 utensils, taken from them. Mrs. Yan Alstine's most 
 arduous labors could do little towards providing for 
 so many destitute persons ; their neighbors were in 
 no condition to help them, the roads were almost 
 impassable, besides being infested by Indians, and 
 their finest horses had been taken. In this deplo- 
 rable situation, she proposed to her husband to join 
 with others who had been robbed in like manner, 
 and make an attempt to recover their property from 
 the Indian castle, eighteen or twenty miles distant, 
 where it had been carried. But the idea of such 
 an enterprise against an enemy superior in num- 
 bers and well prepared for defence, was soon aban- 
 doned. As the cold became more intolerable and 
 the necessity for doing something more urgent, 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 229 
 
 Mrs. Yan Alstine, unable to witness longer the suf- 
 ferings of those dependent on her, resolved to ven- 
 ture herself on the expedition. Her husband and 
 children endeavored to dissuade her, but firm for 
 their sake, she left home, accompanied by her son, 
 about sixteen years of age. The snow was deep 
 and the roads in a wi'etched condition, yet she per- 
 severed through all difficulties, and by good fortune 
 arrived at the castle at a time when the Indians 
 were all absent on a hunting excursion, the women 
 and children only being left at home. She went 
 to the principal house, where she supposed the 
 most valuable articles must have been deposited, 
 and on entering, was met by the old squaw who 
 had the superintendence, who demanded what she 
 wanted. She asked for food ; the squaw hesitated ; 
 but on her visitor saying she had never turned an 
 Indian away hungry, sullenly commenced prepara- 
 tions for a meal. The matron saw her bright cop- 
 per tea-kettle, with other cooking utensils, brought 
 forth for use. While the squaw was gone for 
 water, she began a searcli for her property, and 
 finding several articles gave them to her son to 
 put into the sleigh. When the squaw, returning, 
 asked by whose order she was taking those things, 
 Mrs. Yan Alstine replied, that they belonged to her; 
 and seeing that the woman was not disposed to give 
 them up peaceably, took from her pocket-book a 
 pnper, and handed it to the squaw, who she knew 
 could not read. The woman asked whose name was 
 affixed to the supjDosed order, and being told it was 
 
230 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 that of 'Yankee Peter' — a man who had great 
 influence among the savages, dared not refuse sub- 
 mission. By this stratagem Mrs. Yan Alstine secu- 
 red, without opposition, all the articles she could 
 find belonging to her, and put them into the sleigh. 
 She then asked where the horses were kept. The 
 squaw refused to show her, but she went to the sta 
 ble, and there found those belonging to her husband, 
 in fine order — for the savages were careful of their 
 best horses. The animals recognised their mistress, 
 and greeted her by a simultaneous neighing. She 
 bade her son cut the halters, and finding them- 
 selves at liberty they bounded off and went home- 
 ward at full sj)eed. The mother and son now drove 
 back as fast as possible, for she knew their fate 
 would be sealed if the Indians should return. They 
 reached home late in the evening, and passed a 
 sleepless night, dreading instant pursuit and a night 
 attack from the irritated savages. Soon after day- 
 light the alarm was given that the Indians were 
 within* view, and coming towards the house, painted 
 and in their war costume, and armed with toma- 
 hawks and rifles. Mr. Yan Alstine saw no course 
 to escape their vengeance but to give up what- 
 ever they wished to take back; but his intrepid 
 wife was determined on an effort, at least, to re- 
 tain her property. As they came near she beg- 
 ged her husband not to show himself — for she 
 knew they would immediately fall upon him — but to 
 leave the matter in her hands. The intruders took 
 their course first to the stable, and ])lddino^ all the 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 231 
 
 rest remain witliin doors, the matron went out alone, 
 followed to the door by her family, weeping and 
 entreating her not to expose herself. Going to the 
 stable she enquired in the Indian language what 
 the men wanted. The reply was 'our horses.' She 
 said boldly — ' They are ours ; you came and took 
 them without right ; they are ours, and we mean 
 to keep them.' The chief now came forward threa- 
 teningly, and approached the door. Mrs. Yan Al- 
 stine placed herself against it, telling him she would 
 not give up the animals they had raised and were 
 attached to. He succeeded in pulling her from the 
 door, and drew out the plug that fastened it, which 
 she snatched from his hand, pushing him away. 
 He then stepped back and presented his rifle, threa- 
 tening to shoot her if she did not move; but she 
 kept her position, opening her neckhandkerchief and 
 bidding him shoot if he dared. It might be that 
 the Indian feared punishment from his allies for 
 any such act of violence, or that he was moved 
 with admiration of her intrepidity ; he hesitated, 
 looked at her for a moment, and then slowly drop- 
 ped his gun, uttering in his native language ex- 
 pressions implying his conviction that the evil one 
 must help her, and saying to his companions that 
 she was a brave woman and they would not molest 
 her. Giving a shout, by way of expressing their 
 approbation, they departed from the premises. On 
 their way they called at the house of Col. Frey, and 
 related their adventure, saying that the white wo- 
 man's courage had saved her and her property, and 
 
232 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 were there fifty such brave women as the wife of 
 ' Big Tree,' the Indians would never have troubled 
 the inhabitants of the Mohawk valley. She experi- 
 enced afterwards the good effects of the impression 
 made at this time. .... 
 
 " It was not long after this occurrence that seve- 
 ral Indians came upon some children left in the field 
 while the men went to dinner, and took them pri- 
 soners, tomahawking a young man who rushed from 
 an adjoining field to their assistance. Two of these 
 — six and eight years of age — were Mrs. Yan 
 Alstine's children. The savages passed on towards 
 the Susquehanna, plundering and destroying as they 
 went. They were three wrecks upon the journey, 
 and the poor little captives suffered much from 
 hunger and exposure to the night air, being in a 
 deplorable condition by the time they returned to 
 Canada. On their arrival, according to custom, 
 each prisoner was required to run the gauntlet, 
 two Indian boys being stationed on either side, 
 armed with clubs and sticks to beat him as he 
 ran. The eldest was cruelly bruised, and when 
 the younger, pale and exhausted, was led forward, 
 a squaw of the tribe, taking pity on the helpless 
 child, said she would go in his place, or if that 
 could not be permitted, would carry him. She 
 accordingly took him in her arms, and wrapping 
 her blanket around him, got through with some 
 severe blows. The children were then washed and 
 clothed by order of the chief, and supper was 
 given til em. Their uncle — then also a prisoner — 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 233 
 
 heard of the arrival of children from the Mohawk, 
 and was permitted to visit them. The little crea- 
 tures were sleeping soundly when aroused by a 
 familiar voice, and joyfully exclaiming, 'Uncle 
 Quackinbush ! ' were clasped in his arms. In the 
 following spring the captives were ransomed, and 
 returned home in fine spirits." * 
 
 Prior to the commencement of hostilities, Mr. 
 Yan Alstine had purchased a tract of land on 
 the Susquehanna, eighteen miles below Coopers- 
 town; and thither removed in 1Y85. There as at 
 her former home, Mrs. Yan Alstine had an oppor- 
 tunity to exhibit the heroic qualities of her nature. 
 "We subjoin two anecdotes illustrative of foiest life 
 in the midst of savages. 
 
 " (3n one occasion an Indian whom Mr. Yan 
 Alstine had offended, came to his house with the 
 intention of revenging himself. He was not at 
 home, and the men were out at work, but his wife 
 and family were within, when the intruder entered. 
 Mrs. Yan Alstine saw his purpose in his countenance. 
 When she inquired his business, he pointed to his 
 rifle, saying, he meant 'to show Big Tree which was 
 the best man.' She well knew that if her husband 
 presented himself he would probably fall a victim 
 unless she could reconcile the difficulty. With this 
 view she commenced a conversation upon subjects 
 in which she knew the savage would take an in- 
 terest, and admiring his dress, asked permission 
 
 * Women of the Eevoliition. 
 
SJ34 
 
 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 to examine his rifle, whicli, after praising, she set 
 down, and while managing to 'Q.x his attention on 
 something else poured water into the barrel. She 
 then gave him back the weapon, and assuming a 
 more earnest manner, spoke to him of the Good 
 Spirit, his kindness to men, and their duty to be 
 kind to each other. By her admirable tact she so 
 far succeeded in pacifying him, that when her hus- 
 band retm-ned he was ready to extend to him the 
 hand of reconciliation and fellowship. He partook 
 of some refreshment, and before leaving informed, 
 them that one of their neighbors had lent him the 
 rifle for his deadly purpose. They had for some 
 time suspected this neighbor, who had coveted a 
 piece of land, of unkind feelings towards them be- 
 cause he could not obtain it, yet could scarcely 
 believe him so dej)raved. The Indian, to confirm 
 his story, offered to accompany Mrs. Yan Alstine 
 to the man's house, and although it was evening 
 she went with him, made him repeat what he had 
 said, and so convinced her neighbor of the wicked- 
 ness of his conduct, that he was ever afterwards 
 one of their best friends. Thus by her prudence 
 and address she preserved, in all probability, the 
 lives of her husband and family; for she learned 
 afterwards that a number of savages had been con- 
 cealed near, to rush upon them in case of danger to 
 their companion. 
 
 "At another time a young Indian came in and 
 asked the loan of a drawing knife. As soon as he 
 had it in his hand he walked up ,to the table, on 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 235 
 
 whicli there was a loaf of bread, and unceremoni- 
 ously cut several slices from it. One of Mrs. Van 
 Alstine's sons liad a deerskin in his hand, and 
 indignantly struck the savage with it. He turned 
 and darted out of the door, giving a loud whoop as 
 he fled. The mother just then came in, and hear- 
 ing what had passed expressed her sorrow and fears 
 that there would be trouble, for she knew the Indian 
 character too well to suppose they would allow the 
 matter to rest. Her apprehensions were soon realized 
 by the approach of a party of savages, headed by 
 the brother of the youth who had been struck. 
 He entered alone, and inquired for the boy who 
 had given the blow. Mr. Yan Alstine, starting up 
 in surprise, asked impatiently, 'What the devilish 
 Indian wanted?' The savage, understanding the 
 expression applied to his appearance to be anything 
 but complimentary, uttered a sharp cry, and raising 
 his rifle, aimed at Yan Alstine's breast. His wife 
 sprang forward in time to throw up the weapon, 
 the contents of which were discharged into the wall, 
 and pushing out the Indian, who stood just at the 
 entrance, she quickly closed the door. He was 
 much enraged, but she at length succeeded in per- 
 suading him to listen to a calm account of the 
 matter, and asked why the quarrel of two lads 
 should break their friendship. She finally invited 
 him to come in and settle the difiiculty in an ami- 
 cable way. To his objection that they had no rum, 
 she answered — 'But we have tea;' and at length 
 the party was called in, and a speech made by the 
 
236 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 leader in favor of tlie 'white squaw,' after which 
 the tea was passed round. The Indian then took 
 the grounds, and emptying them into a hole made 
 in the ashes, declared that the enmity was buried 
 forever. After this, whenever the family was mo- 
 lested, the ready tact of Mrs, Yan Alstine, and her 
 acquaintance with Indian nature, enabled her to pre- 
 vent any serious difficulty. They had few advantages 
 for religious worship, but whenever the weather would 
 permit, the neighbors assembled at Yan Alstine's 
 house to hear the word preached. His wife, by her 
 influence over the Indians, persuaded many of them 
 to attend, and would interpret to them what was 
 said by the minister. Often their rude hearts were 
 touched, and they would weep bitterly while she 
 went over the affecting narrative of our Redeemer's 
 life and death, and explained the truths of the Gos- 
 pel. Much good did she in this way, and in after 
 years many a savage converted to Christianity blessed 
 her as his benefactress." 
 
HEROIC CONDUCT AT MONMOUTH. 
 
 Proud were they by such' to stand, 
 
 In hammock, fort or glen; 
 To load the sure old rifle — 
 
 To run the leaden ball — 
 To watch a battling husband's place. 
 
 And fill it should he falL 
 
 W. D. Gallaghee. 
 
 During the battle of Monmoutli, a gunner named 
 Pitcher was killed ; and when the call was made for 
 some one to take the place of her fallen husband, 
 his wife, who had followed him to the camp, and 
 thence to the field of conflict, unhesitatingly stepped 
 forward, and offered her services. The gun was so 
 well managed as to draw the attention of General 
 Washington to the circumstance, and to call forth an 
 expression of his admiration of her bravery and her 
 fidelity to her country. To show his appreciation of 
 her virtues and her highly valuable services, he con- 
 ferred on her a lieutenant's commission. She after- 
 wards went by the name of Cajptain MoWy. 
 
 The poet Glover tells us, in his Leonidas, that 
 Xerxes boasted 
 
 "His ablest, bravest counselor and chief 
 In Artemisia, Caria's matchless queen;" 
 
 and Herodotus also very justly eulogizes the same 
 
238 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 character. Yet Artemisia was scarcely more service- 
 able to Xerxes in the battle of Salamis, than " Cap- 
 tain Molly" to Washington in the battle of Mon- 
 mouth. One served in a Grecian expedition, to 
 gratify her great spirit, vigor of mind and love of 
 glory ; the other fought, partly, it may be, to revenge 
 the death of her hnsband, but more, doubtless, for 
 the love she bore for an injured country, "bleeding 
 at every vein." One was rewarded with a complete 
 suit of Grecian armor; the other with a lieutenant's 
 commission, and both for their bravery. If the queen 
 of Caria is deserving of praise for her martial valor, 
 the name of the heroic wife of the gunner, should be 
 woven with hers in a fadeless wreath of song. 
 
COUEAGE OF A COUNTET GIKL. 
 
 Honor and shame from no condition rise, 
 Act well your part, there all the honor lies. 
 
 Pope 
 
 In December, 1T7Y, while Washington was at 
 Yallej Forge and the enemy was in Philadelphia, 
 Major Tallmadge was stationed between the two 
 places with a detachment of cavalry, to make obser- 
 vations and to limit the range of British foragers. 
 On one occasion, while performing this duty, he was 
 informed that a country girl had gone into Phila- 
 delphia — perhaps by Washington's instigation — 
 ostensibly to sell eggs, but really and. especially to 
 obtain information respecting the enemy; and ciu*i- 
 osity led him to move his detachment to Germantown. 
 There the main body halted while he advanced with 
 a small party towards the British lines. Dismounting 
 at a tavern in plain sight of their outposts, he soon 
 saw a young girl coming out of the city. He watched 
 her till she came up to the tavern; made iiimself 
 known to her, and was about to receive some valuable 
 intelligence, when he was informed that the British 
 liglit horse were advancing. Stepping to the door he 
 saw them in full pursuit of his patroles. He hastily 
 
210 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 mounted, but before he bad started his charger, the 
 girl was at his side begging for protection. Quick as 
 thought, he ordered her to mount behind him. She 
 obeyed, and in that way rode to Germantown, a dis- 
 tance of three miles. During the whole ride, writes 
 the Major in his Journal, where we find these details, 
 "although there was considerable firing of pistoife, 
 and not a little wheeling and charging, she remained 
 unmoved, and never once complained of fear." 
 
THE LEDYAEDS AT FOET GEISWOLD 
 
 Ah never shall the land forget 
 
 How gushed the life-blood of the brave ; 
 Gushed warm with hope and courage yet, 
 
 Upon the soil they fought to save. 
 
 How few like thee enquire the wretched out. 
 And court the offices of soft humanity. 
 
 Bryant 
 
 RowE, 
 
 "It will be remembered that at the time of the 
 burning of 'New London, Connecticut, a detachment 
 of the army of the traitor Arnold, under whose per- 
 sonal direction that feat of vandalism was performed, 
 was directed to attack and carry Fort Griswold at 
 Groton, on the opposite side of the river. It was 
 then under the command of Colonel Ledyard, a brave 
 and meritorious officer, whose memory will live in 
 the warm affections of his country, as that of one of 
 the early martyrs to her liberty, whilst the granite 
 pile which now lifts its summit above the spot where 
 he was sacrificed, shall long remain to bear the record 
 of his death. The fort was, in truth, little more than 
 an embankment of earth, thrown up as a breast-work, 
 for the handful of troops it surrounded, and with a 
 strong log-house in the center. The force which 
 
 attacked it was altogether superior to that of its 
 16 
 
242 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 defenders, even when the difference in their position 
 is taken into view. The case was so hopeless, that 
 the slightest share of prudence wonld have suggested 
 retreat. But the chafed and gallant spirits of Led- 
 yard and his men would not permit them to retire 
 before a marauding enemy, however powerful, without 
 making at least one effort to beat him back. With a 
 boldness and heroism scarcely ever surpassed, they 
 stood their ground, until overwhelming numbers of 
 the enemy were in the fort, and engaged hand to 
 hand with its heroic defenders. Fierce and temble, 
 for a few moments, was the encounter, and it was not 
 until the last ray of hope was gone, and nothing but 
 a useless effusion of blood would have resulted from 
 further resistance, that they at length yielded. In 
 doing so, however, they were inclined to believe that 
 the gallantry displayed by their little band, would at 
 least shelter them from indignity. Ledyard had 
 turned the handle of his sword to the commander of 
 the assailants, and in answer to the question, 'who 
 commands this fort,' replied, 'I did, sir, but you do 
 now,' when he was pierced to the heart with his own 
 weapon, and by the dastardly hand in which he had 
 just placed it. An almost indiscriminate butchery 
 now commenced; many falling instantly dead and 
 some being desperately wounded. The fort was then 
 entirely at the disposal of the enemy. The barbarity, 
 however, did not end there. When it was found that 
 several of the prisoners were still alive, the British 
 soldiers piled their mangled bodies in an old cart and 
 started it down the steep and rugged hill, towards the 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 243 
 
 river, in order that they might be there drowned. 
 But stumjjs and stones obstructed the passage of the 
 cart; and when the enemy had retreated — for the 
 aroused inhabitants of that region soon compelled 
 them to the step — the friends of the wounded came 
 to their aid and thus several lives were saved."* 
 
 One of the " ministering angels" who came the next 
 morning to the aid of the thirty-five wounded men, 
 who lay all night freezing in their own blood, was 
 Miss Mary Ledyard, a near relative of the Colonel. 
 " She brought warm chocolate, wine, and other re- 
 freshments, and while Dr. Downer of Preston was 
 dressing their wounds, she went from one to another, 
 administering her cordials, and breathing into their 
 ears gentle words of sympathy and encouragement. 
 In these labors of kindness she was assisted by ano 
 ther relative of the lamented Colonel Ledyard — Mrs. 
 John Ledyard — who had also brought her household 
 stores to refresh the sufferers, and lavished on them 
 the most soothing personal attentions. The soldiers 
 who recovered from their wounds, were accustomed, 
 to the day of their death, to speak of .these ladies in 
 terms of fervent gratitude and praise."f 
 
 • Democratic Review, vol. 20, pp^93-4. t Mrs. Ellet. 
 
SE]^ECA HEROIJSTES 
 
 They fought like brave men, long and "well. 
 
 Halleck. 
 
 In the celebrated battle between the French and 
 Indians, which occurred near Yictor, in the western 
 part of l^ew York, in 1687, ^yq Seneca women 
 took an active part in the bloody conflict. Mr. 
 Hosmer, the 'poet, alludes to the circumstance in 
 one of his celebrated " Lectures on the Iroquois," 
 from the manuscript of which we have been per- 
 mitted to copy, as follows: 
 
 "The memory of illustrious women who have 
 watched in defence of altar and hearth, the deeds 
 of the sterner sex, has been enshrined in song, and 
 honored by the Historic Muse. Joan of Arc, and 
 the dark-eyed maid of Saragossa in all coming 
 time will be chivalric watch-words of France and 
 Spain, but not less worthy of record, and poetic 
 embalmment, were the Jwe"^ devoted heroines who 
 followed their red lords to the battle-field near 
 ancient Ganagarro, and fought with unflinching re- 
 
 • Vide Doc. His, YoL 1. p. 256. 
 
OP AMEEIOAN WOMEN. 245 
 
 solution by their sides. Children of such wives 
 could not be otherwise than valiant. Bring back 
 your shield, or be brought upon it, was the Spartan 
 mother-s stem injunction to her son: but roused 
 to a higher pitch of courage, the wild daughters of 
 the Genesee stood in the perilous pass, and in the 
 defence of their forest homes, turned not back from 
 the spear, "the thunder of the captains, and the 
 shouting." 
 
MARTHA BRj^TTON. 
 
 Not to the ensanguined field of death alone 
 Is valor limited. 
 
 Smollkt. 
 
 Our country first, tlieir glory and their pride. 
 
 J. T. Fields. 
 
 Martha Bratton was the wife of William Bratton 
 a native of Pennsylvania. She was born in Bowan 
 conntj, North Carolina. -They settled near York 
 ville, in South Carolina, where she died in 1816. 
 Two or three anecdotes will suffice to illustrate her 
 character. 
 
 In June, 1780, a party of British and tory ma- 
 rauders, were attacked by a company of whiga 
 under Colonel Bratton, at Mobley Meeting House, 
 in Fairfield district, South Carolina, and defeated. 
 Advertised of this disaster. Colonel TurnbuU, com- 
 mander of a detachment of British troops at Rocky 
 Mount, Chester county, ordered Captain Huck to 
 proceed with his cavalry to the frontier of the 
 province, collecting all the royal army on his march, 
 and if possible to subdue the rebels. An engage 
 ment soon took place between Captain Huck and Col 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMKN. 247 
 
 onel Bratton ; but before the battle, the Colonel's wife 
 had an 023portunity to display her character in a 
 truly heroic manner- The evening preceding, Huck 
 arrived at the Colonel's house, and entering in an 
 uncivil manner, demanded of his wife where her 
 husband was. She boldly replied "He is in Sum- 
 ter's army ! " Huck then tried to persuade her 
 to induce her husbajjd to join the British, and 
 even went so far as to promise him a commission, 
 in case he would do so. But neither persuasion 
 nor argument availed any thing. With the firmness 
 of a true patriot, she assured him that she would 
 rather see him — faithful to his country — perish in 
 Sumter's army, than clothed with any power or 
 graced with any honor royalty could bestow! At 
 this point, a soldier, exasperated at her bold and 
 fearless manner, seized a reaping hook that hung 
 in the piazza and threatened to kill her if she did 
 not give particular and full information in regard to 
 her husband. But with the weapon still at her 
 throat, she j)i'omptly refused ; and, but for the inter- 
 ference of the officer second in command, she would 
 have lost her life. 
 
 Huck now ordered her to prepare supper for 
 himself and the whole band. With this request she 
 complied, and then retired to an upper apartment 
 with her children. Supper over, Huck posted his 
 sentinels along the road and went with his officers 
 to another house, half a mile off, to pass the night. 
 
 Convinced that the royalists would seek revenge 
 ior their late defeat at Mobley's Meeting House, 
 
.■[.i^.. 
 
 248 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 and naturally fearing that his own family might 
 be among the victims, Colonel Bratton had that 
 day marched from Mecklenburg county, North Caro- 
 lina, with seventy- five men. Late in the evening 
 he drew near his house, and learning that the enemy 
 were there, and ascertaining their number, he made 
 speedy preparations for an attack. The guard 
 of the royalists was neglected, and he found no 
 trouble in reconnoitering the encampment. All 
 things ready, the attack was made before Huck 
 had finished his morning nap. He awoke only to 
 attempt to rally his men and then lie down again 
 to sleep for ever! The tories seeing their leader 
 fall, fled, or made the attempt. Some did escape, 
 others were killed, others taken prisoners. The 
 firing ceased about day light, when Mrs. Bratton 
 made her appearance. She received the wounded on 
 both sides, and showed them impartial attention, 
 setting herself to work immediately, dressing their 
 wounds and trying to relieve their paias. She who 
 was so brave in the hour of danger, was no less 
 humane in a time of suffering. * 
 
 Prior to the fall of Charleston at a period when 
 
 * The foUowiDg toast was drunk at Brattonsville, York district, on 
 the twelfth of July, 1839, at a celebration of Buck's Defeat. 
 
 " The memory of Mrs. Martha Bratton. — In the hands of an infuriated 
 monster, with the instrument of death around her neck, she nobly 
 refused to betray her husband ; in the hour of victory she remembered 
 mercy, and as a guardian angel, interposed in behalf of her inhuman 
 enemies. Throughout the Revolution she encouraged the whigs to 
 fight on to the last; to hope on to the end. Honor and gratitude 
 to the woman and heroine, who proved herself so faithful a wife 
 - so firm a friend to liberty ! " 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 24P 
 
 ammunition was very scarce, Governor Rutledge 
 intrusted to her a small stock of powder. This 
 fact some tory ascertained, and communicated to 
 the British at a station not far off. A detachment 
 was forthwith sent out to secure the treasure, of 
 which movement Mrs. Bratton received early in- 
 timation. Resolving that the red coats should not 
 Jiave the prize, she laid a train of powder from 
 the depot to the spot she chose to occupy; and 
 when they came in sight, she blew it up. "Who 
 has dared to do this atrocious act? Speak quickly, 
 that they may meet the punishment they deserve," 
 was the demand of the officer in command. " Know 
 then, 'twas /," was the dauntless reply of Mrs. 
 Bratton, "and let the consequences be what they 
 will," she added, "I glory in having frustrated the 
 mischief contemplated by the merciless enemies of 
 my country." 
 
A POOE woma:n^'s offekestg. 
 
 The world is but a word ; 
 "Were it all yours, to give it in a breath. 
 How quickly were it gone ! 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 rhe follo^ving anecdote was related, a few years 
 ago, bv the Eev. W. S. Plumer, while addressing 
 the Virginia Baptist Education Society. "We regret 
 that he did not give the name of the good woman 
 who possessed such commendable zeal for the mis- 
 sionary cause. 
 
 "A poor woman had attended a missionary mee- 
 tinor a few vears since. Her heart was moved with 
 pity. She looked around on her house and fm-niture 
 to see what she could spare for the mission. She 
 could think of nothing that would be of any use. 
 At length she thought of her five children, three 
 daughters and two sons. She entered her closet, and 
 consecrated them to the mission. Two of her daugh- 
 ters are now in heathen lands, and the other is pre- 
 paring to go. Of her sons, one is on his way to 
 India, and the other is preparing for the ministry, 
 and inquiring on the subject of a missionary life." 
 
■--*' 
 
 THE MOTHEE OF PKESIDEXT JACKSON. 
 
 Kow often has the thought 
 
 Of my moum'd mother brought 
 Peace to my troubled spirit, and new pwwer 
 
 The tempter to repeL 
 
 Mother, thou knowest well 
 That thou has bleis'd me since my natal hour. 
 
 PlEEPOKT. 
 
 The motlier of General Jackson had three child- 
 ren. Their names were Hugh, Hobert and Andrew. 
 The last was the joiingest and lost his father when 
 an infant. Like the mother of TTashington, she v/as 
 a very pious woman, and sti-ove to glorifv God as 
 much in the rearing of her children a$ in the per- 
 formance of any other dnty. She taught Andrew the 
 leading doctrines of the Bible, in the form of ques- 
 tion and answer, fromtheW^tminister catechism; and 
 those lessons lie never forgot. In convei^ation with 
 him some years since, says a writer, " General Jack- 
 son spoke of his mother in a manner that conrinced 
 me that she never ceased to exert a secret power 
 over him, until his heart was brought into reconcili- 
 ation with God.-' This change, however, he did not 
 experience till very late in life — after he had retired 
 from the Presidencv. TTe uniterl \rith the Presby- 
 
252 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 terian church near the close of the year 1839, then 
 in his seventy-third year. Just before his death, 
 which occurred in June, 1845, he said to a clergy- 
 man, "My lamp of life is nearly out, and the last 
 glimmer is come. I am ready to depart when called. 
 The Bible is true. . . . Upon that sacred vol- 
 ume I rest my hope of eternal salvation, through the 
 merits and blood of our blessed Lord and Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 K departed spirits, the saintly and ascended, are 
 permitted to look from their high habitation, upon 
 the scenes of earth, with what holy transport must 
 the mother of Andrew Jackson have beheld the 
 death-bed triumph of her son. The lad whom she 
 eaiiy sent to an academy at the Waxhaw meeting- 
 house, hoping to lit him for the ministry, had become 
 a man, and led the hosts of the land through many a 
 scene of conflict and on to a glorious and decisive 
 victory; had filled the highest oflice in the world, 
 and was now an old man, able, in his last earthly 
 hour, hy the gram of God attending Tier early^^ious 
 ifisiruction, to challenge death for his sting and to 
 shout " victory " over his opening grave. 
 
Q 
 
 THE TOUISrG HEEOINE OF EOKT HENEY. 
 
 Judge me not ungentle. 
 Of manner's rude, and insolent of speech, 
 - If, when the public safety is in question. 
 
 My zeal flows warm and eager from my tongue. 
 
 RowE*s Jane Shoee. 
 
 The siege of Fort Henrj, at the mouth of Wheel- 
 ing creek, in Ohio county, Virginia, occurred in 
 September, 1777. Of the historical fact most people 
 are aware ; yet but few, comparatively, knew how 
 much the little band in the garrison, who held out 
 against thirty or forty times their number of savage 
 assailants, were indebted, for their success, to the 
 courage and self-devotion of a single female. 
 
 The Indians kept up a brisk firing from about 
 sunrise till past noon, when they ceased and retired 
 a short distance to the foot of a hiU. During the 
 forenoon the little company in the fort had not been 
 idle. Among their number were a few sharp shooters, 
 who had burnt most of the powder on hand to the 
 best advantage. Almost every charge had taken 
 effect; and probably the savages began to see that 
 they were losing numbers at fearful odds, and had 
 doubtless retired for consultation. But they had lesa 
 
254 NOBI.E DEEDS 
 
 occasion for anxiety, just at that time, than the men, 
 women and children in the garrison. As already 
 hinted, the stock of powder was nearly exhausted. 
 There was a keg in a house ten or twelve rods 
 from the gate of the fort, and as soon as the hos- 
 tilities of the Indians were suspended, the question 
 arose, who shall attempt to seize this prize ? Strange 
 to say, every soldier proffered his services, and there 
 was an ardent contention among them for the honor, 
 [n the weak state of the garrison, Colonel Shepard, 
 the commander, deemed it advisable that only one 
 person should be spared; and in the midst of the con- 
 fusion, before any one could be designated, a girl 
 named Elizabeth Zane,* interrupted the debate, 
 saying that her life was not so important, at that 
 time, as any one of the soldier's, and claiming the 
 privilege of performing the contested service. The 
 Colonel would not, at first, listen to her proposal; 
 but she was so resolute, so persevering in her plea, 
 DTid her argument was so pow^erful, that he finally 
 saffei'ed the gate to be opened, and she passed out. 
 The Indians saw her before she reached her bro- 
 thel's house, where the keg was deposited; but, for 
 some unknown cause, they did not molest her, until 
 she re-appeared with the article under her arm. 
 Probably divining the nature of her burden, they 
 discharged a volley as she was running towards the 
 
 * We learn, from Withers, that Miss Zane has since had two 
 husbaiids. 
 
 The name of the second -Wfis Clarke, a resident of Ohio. She was 
 living, not long since, near St. Clairs^^lle. 
 
OK A»[ERICAN WOMEN. 
 
 255 
 
 gate ; buL the whizzing balls only gave agility to 
 her feet, and herself and the prize were quickly safe 
 within the gate. The result was that the soldiers 
 inspu'ed with enthusiasm by this heroic adventure^ 
 fought with renewed courage, and, before the keg 
 of powder was exhausted, the enemy raised the siege. 
 
A BENEYOLEJSTT WIDOW 
 
 Charity ever 
 Finds in the act reward. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher. 
 
 Several years ago, a poor widow had placed a smo- 
 ked herring, — the last morsel of food she had in the 
 liouse — on the table for herself and children, when a 
 stranger entered and solicited food, saying that he had 
 had nothing to eat for twenty-four hours. The widow 
 mihesitatingly offered to share the herring with him, 
 remarking, at the same time, " We shall not be for- 
 •saken, or suffer deeper for an act of charity. " 
 
 As the stranger drew near the table and saw the 
 scantiness of the fare, he asked, "And is this all your 
 store? Do you offer a share to one you do not know? 
 Then I never saw charity before. But, madam, do 
 you not wrong your children by giving a part of your 
 morsel to a stranger ? " " Ah," said she, with tears in 
 her eyes , " I have a boy, a darling son, somewhere on 
 the face of the wide world, unless Heaven has taken 
 him away; and I only act towards you as I would 
 that others should act towards him. God, who sent 
 manna from heaven, can provide for us as he did 
 ^or Israel; and how should I this night offend him, 
 
'^^ ^\.. 
 
 THE WIDOW AND HER SON. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 257 
 
 if my son should be a wanderer, destitute as yon, 
 and he should have provided for him a home, even 
 as poor as this, were I to turn you unrelieved away ! " 
 The stranger whom she thus addressed, was the long 
 absent son to whom she referred ; and when she stop- 
 ped speaking, he sprang from his feet, clasped her 
 in his arms, and exclaimed, " God, indeed, has pro- 
 vided just such a home for your wandering son, a/nd 
 TiGbs given Mm wealth to reward the goodness of 
 his henef actress. My mother ! O, my mother ! " * 
 
 * Abrid|««l from Cyclopedia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes. 
 17 
 
AJ^I!^ E FITZHUGH. 
 
 Wlio shall find a valiant woman ? 
 
 The price of her is as things brought from afar. 
 
 Proveebs. 
 
 'T is the last 
 Duty that I can pay to my dear lord. 
 
 Fletcher. 
 
 Tlie wife of Colonel "William Fitzhugh, of Mary- 
 land, while lio was absent at one time during the 
 Revolntion, was sm-prised by the news that a party 
 of British soldiers was approaching her house. 
 She instantly collected her slaves ; furnished them 
 with such weapons of defence as were at hand; 
 took a quantity of cartridges in her apron, and, 
 herself forming the van, urged her sable subalterns 
 on to meet the foe. ISTot looking for resistance, the 
 advancing party, on beholding the amazon with her 
 sooty invincibles, hastily turned on their heels and 
 fled. 
 
 On a subsequent occasion, a detachment of soldiers 
 marched at midnight to Colonel Fitzhugh's house, 
 which was half a mile from the shore, and near the 
 mouth of the Patuxent river, and knocked at the 
 
THE llEKOIC MOTHER. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 259 
 
 door. The Colonel demanding who was there, and 
 receiving for reply that the visitants were "friends 
 to King George," told the unwelcome intruders that 
 he was blind and unable to wait upon them, but 
 that his wife would admit them forthwith. Lighting 
 a candle and merely putting on her slippers, she 
 descended, awoke her sons, put pistols in their 
 hands, and, pointing to the back door, told them 
 to flee. She then let the soldiers in at the front 
 door. They inquired for Colonel Fitzhugh, and said 
 he must come down stairs at once and go as a 
 prisoner to jSTew York. She accordingly dressed her 
 husband — forgetting meanwhile, to do as much for 
 herself — and when he had descended, he assured 
 the soldiers that his blindness, and the infirmities 
 of age unfitted him to take care of himself, and 
 tliat it could \ardly be desirable for them to take 
 in charge so decrepit and inoffensive a person. 
 They thought otherwise; and his wife, seeing he 
 must go, took his arm and said she would go too. 
 The officer told her she would be exposed and 
 must suffer, but she persisted in accompanying him, 
 saying that he could not take care of himself, nor, 
 if he could, would she permit a sej)aration. 
 
 It was a cold and rainy night, and with the 
 mere protection of a cloak, which the officer took 
 down and threw over her shoulders before leaving 
 the house, she sallied forth with the party. While 
 on the way to their boat, the report of a gun was 
 heard, which the soldiers supposed was the signal 
 of a rebel gathering. They hastened to the boat, 
 
260 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 where a parole was written out witli trembling 
 hand, and placed in the old gentleman's possession. 
 Without even a benediction, he was left on shore 
 with his faithful and fearless companion, who thought 
 but little of her wet feet as she stood and saw the 
 cowardly detachment of British soldiers push ofl' 
 and row awaj with all their might for safety. 
 
ESTHEE GASTON. 
 
 True fortitude is seen in great exploits 
 
 That justice warrants and that wisdom guides. 
 
 Addison. 
 
 The good alone are great. 
 
 Beattie. 
 
 On the morning of Julj thirtietli, 1770, Esther 
 Gaston, afterwards the wife of Alexander Walker, 
 hearing the firing at the battle of Rocky Mount, took 
 with her a sisterjn-law, and, well mounted, pushed on 
 towards the scene of conflict. They soon met two or 
 three cowardly men, hastening from the field of ac- 
 tion. Esther hailed and rebuked then, and finding 
 entreaties would not cause them to retrace their steps, 
 she seized the gun from the hands of one of them, 
 exclaiming, "Give us your guns, then, and we will 
 stand in your places." The cowards, abashed, now 
 wheeled, and, in company with the females, hurried 
 on to face the cannon's mouth. 
 
 While the strife was still raging, Esther and her 
 companion busied themselves in dressing the wound- 
 ed and quenching the thirst of the dying. Even 
 their helpless enemies shared in their humane ser- 
 vices. 
 
262 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 During tho battle of Hanging Rock, wiiicli occur 
 red tlie next week, Esther might be seen at Waxhaw 
 church, which was converted for the time into a hos- 
 pital, administering to the wants of the wounded. 
 
 As kind as patriotic, with her hands filled with 
 soothing cordials, she was seen, through all her life, 
 knocking at the door of suffering humanity. 
 
KEMAEKABLE PEESEKCE OF MIND ANJ) 
 SELF-POSSESSIOJSr. 
 
 Were I the monarch of the earth. 
 
 And master of the swelling sea, 
 I would not estimate their worth. 
 
 Dear woman, half the price of thee. 
 
 Geo. p. Morris. 
 
 Mr. Ealph Izard, a true "liberty man," resided^ 
 during the struggle for Lidependence, near Dorches- 
 ter, in Sonth Carolina. He was for awhile aid-de- 
 camp to the commander of the Light Troops, and 
 was an especial object of British hatred. On one 
 occasion, while at home, he came very near falling 
 into the hands of the enemy. A number of British 
 soldiers surrounded his house, and on discovering 
 them he hid himself in the clothes-press. They 
 were confident he was in the house, and having 
 instituted a thorough but ineffectual search, threat- 
 ened to burn the building, unless his wife would 
 point out his j^lace of concealment. She adroitly 
 evaded answering directly all queries respecting his 
 quarters. They next robbed his wardrobe ; seized 
 all the better articles they could find in the house, 
 and even tried to force off her finger-rings. She 
 
264 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 still remained composed and courageous, yet courte- 
 ous and urbane, knowing that much, every thing, 
 in fact, depended on her self-control. Her calmness 
 and apparent unconcern led the marauders to con- 
 clude that they had been misled in supposing Mr. 
 Izard was in the house ; and at length they departed. 
 He then sprang from his covert, and, rushing out 
 bj a back door, crossed the Ashley river and noti- 
 fied the Americans on the opposite side, of the 
 state of things. 
 
 Meantime, the ruffians returned to the house, and, 
 strange to say, went directly to the clothes-press. 
 Again disappointed, they retired; but they were 
 soon met by a body of cavalry, handsomely whipped, 
 and all the fine articles belonging to Mr. Izard's 
 wardrobe and house were restored. 
 
THE WIFS OF GOYEKKOE GRISWOLR 
 
 Happy the man, and happy sure he was. 
 So wedded. 
 
 HURDIS. 
 
 The residence of the first Governor of Connecticut, 
 was at Blackhall, near Long Island Sound. While 
 British ships were lying at anchor in these waters on 
 a certain occasion, a party of marines in pursuit of 
 his Excellency, presented themselves at the door. It 
 being impossible for him to escape by flight, his affec- 
 tionate and thoughtful wife secreted him in a large 
 new meat barrel or tierce — for although he was some- 
 what corpnlent, he conld not vie in physical rotundity 
 with the early and honored Knickerbocker magis- 
 trates. He was cleverly packed away in the future 
 home of doomed porkers, just as the soldiers entered 
 and commenced their search. ]^ot finding him rea- 
 dily, they asked his quick-witted wife one or two hard 
 questions, but received no very enlightening answer. 
 The Legislature had convened a day or two before 
 at Hartford, and she intimated that he was or ought 
 to be at the capital. Unsuccessful in their search, 
 the soldiers took their boat and returned to the ship. 
 Before they had reached the latter, his unpacked 
 Honor was on a swift steed, galloping to Gnberna 
 torial head-quarters. 
 
BOLD EXPLOIT OF A YOU:^rG GIKL. 
 
 Some god impels with corn-age not thy own. 
 
 Pope's Homer. 
 
 Robert Gibbes was the owner of a splendid man- 
 sion on John's Island, a few miles from Charleston, 
 South Carolina, known, during the Revolution, as the 
 "Peaceful Retreat." On his plantation the British 
 encamj)ed on a certain occasion; and the American 
 authorities sent two galleys up the Stono river, on 
 which the mansion stood, to dislodge them. Strict 
 injunctions had been given to the men not to fire on 
 the house, but Mr. Gibbes not being aware of this 
 fact, when the firing commenced, thought it advisable 
 to take his family to some remote place for shelter. 
 They accordingly started in a cold and drizzly rain 
 and in a direction ranging with the fire of the Ameri- 
 can guns. Shot struck the trees and cut the bushes 
 beside their path for some distance. WJien about a 
 mile from the mansion, and out of danger, reaching 
 the huts occupied by the negroes on the plantation, 
 Mrs. Gibbes, being chilled and exhausted, was obliged 
 to lie down. Here, when they sujDposed all were 
 safe, and began to rejoice over their fortunate escape, 
 to their great astonishment, they discovered that a 
 bov named Fenwick. a member of tlic f iip.ily, had 
 
OF AMERICAN AVOMEN. 267 
 
 been left behind.* It was still raining, was very 
 dark, and imminent danger mnst attend an effort to 
 rescue the lad. And who would risk life in attempt- 
 ing it ? The servants refused. Mr. Gibbes was gouty 
 and feeble, and prudence forbade him to again ven- 
 ture out. At length, the oldest daughter of the fa- 
 mily, Mary Ann, only thirteen years old, offers to go 
 alone. She hastens off; reaches the house, still in 
 possession of the British ; begs the sentinel to let her 
 enter; and though repeatedly repulsed, she doubles 
 the earnestness of her entreaties, and finally gains 
 admittance. She finds the child in the third story ; 
 clasps him in her arms; hastens down stairs, and, 
 passing the sentry, flees with the shot whizzing past 
 her head; and herself and the child are soon with 
 the rest of the family. 
 
 * In addition to her own family, Mrs. Gibbes had the care of the 
 seven orphan children of Mrs. Fenwick, her sister-in-la-Bsr, and two other 
 children. It is not surprising, that, in the confusion of a sudden flight 
 from the house, one of tJie number should be left behiiui 
 
SUSANNA WEIGHT. 
 
 "Work for some good, be it ever so slowly; 
 Cherish some flower, be it ever so lowly ; 
 Labor — all labor is noble and holy. 
 
 Mrs. Osgood, 
 
 Susanna Wright removed to tliis country with her 
 parents from Warrington, in Great Britain, in the 
 year 1714. The family settled in Lancaster county, 
 Pennsylvania. Susanna was then about seventeen. 
 " She never married ; but after the death of her 
 father, became the head of her own family, who 
 looked up to her for advice and direction as a parent, 
 for her heart was replete with every kind aiiection." 
 
 She was a remarkable economist of time, for 
 although she had the constant management of a large 
 family, and, at times, of a profitable establishment, 
 she mastered many of the sciences; was a good 
 French, Latin and Italian scholar; assisted neighbors 
 in the settlement of estates, and was frequently con- 
 sulted as a physician. 
 
 " She took great delight in domestic manufactut-e, 
 and had constantly much of it produced in her family. 
 For many years she attended to the rearing of silk 
 worms, and with the silk, which she reeled and pre- 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMKN. 269 
 
 pared herself, made many articles both of beauty 
 and utility, dying the silk of various colors with indi- 
 genous materials. She had at one time upwards of 
 sixty yards of excellent mantua returned to her from 
 Great Britain, where she had sent the raw silk to be 
 manufactured." 
 
 This industrious and pious Quakeress, who seems 
 to have possessed all the excellencies defined in Solo- 
 mon's inventory of the virtuous woman, lived more 
 than four score years, an ornament to her sex and a 
 blessing to the race. 
 
 " There was no need. 
 In those good times, of trim callisthenics, — 
 And there was less of gadding, and far more 
 Of home-bred, heart-felt comfort, rooted strong 
 In industry, and bearing such rare fruit 
 As wealth may never purchase.'* 
 
 n 
 
PATKIOTISM OF 1770. 
 
 In conduct, as in courage, you excel. 
 Still first to act what you advise so well. 
 
 Pope's Homer. 
 
 In the early part of February, 1770, the women of 
 I^oston publicly pledged themselves to abstain from 
 the use of tea, " as a practical execution of the non- 
 importation agreement of their fathers, husbands and 
 brothers." We are credibly informed, writes the 
 editor of the Boston Gazette of February ninth, " that 
 upwards of one hundred ladies at the north part of 
 the town, have, of their own free will and accord, 
 come into and signed an agreement, not to drink any 
 tea till the Revenue Acts are passed.'^ At that date 
 three hundred matrons had become members of the 
 league. '•^ 
 
 Three days after the above date, the young women 
 followed the example of their mothers, multitudes 
 signing a document which read as follows : " We, the 
 daughters of those patriots who have and do now 
 appear for the public interest, and, in that, principally 
 regard their posterity, — as such do with pleasm-e 
 engage with them in denying ourselves the drinking 
 of foreign tea, in hopes to frustrate a plan which 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 271 
 
 tends to deprive tl*e wliole community of all that is 
 valuable in life." 
 
 Multitudes of females in New York and Virginia, 
 and, if we mistake not, some in other states, made 
 similar movements ; and it is easy to perceive, in the • 
 tone of those early pledges of self-denial for honor, 
 liberty, country's sake, the infancy of that spirit which, 
 quickly reaching its manhood, planned schemes of 
 resistance to oppression on a more magnanimous 
 scale, and flagged not till a work was done which 
 filled half the world with admiration and the whole 
 with astonishment. 
 
MKS. SPALDESTG OF GEOEGIA. 
 
 Througli trials hard as these, how oft are seen 
 The tender sex, in fortitude sei-ene. 
 
 Ann Seward. 
 
 Mrs. Spalding was the niece of General Lachlan 
 Mcintosh, daughter of Colonel William Mcintosh and 
 mother of Major Spalding, of Georgia. 
 
 In 1778, after Colonel Campbell took possession 
 of Savannali, Georgia, that section of the country was 
 infested with reckless marauders, and many families 
 iled to avoid their ruthlessness. Mr. Spalding re- 
 tired with his wife and child to Florida; and twice 
 during the Revolution, she traversed "the two hun- 
 dred miles between Savannah and St. John's river, 
 in an open boat, with only black servants on board, 
 when the whole country was a desert, without a house 
 to shelter her and her infant son." 
 
 The 2Dart she bore in the dangers of the Revolution 
 and the anxieties to which she was necessarily sub- 
 jected, so impaired her health that "rriany years af- 
 terwards it was deemed necessary that she should 
 try the climate of Europe. In January, 1800, she, 
 with her son and his wife, left Savannah in a British 
 
OF A^rERICAN WOMEN. 273 
 
 ship of twenty guns, with fifty men, built in all points 
 to resemble a sloop of war, without the appearance 
 of a cargo. When they had been out about fifteen 
 days, the captain sent one morning at daylight, to 
 request the presence of two of his gentlemen passen- 
 gers on deck. A large ship, painted black and show- 
 ing twelve guns on a side, was seen to windward, 
 running across their course. She was obviously a 
 French privateer. The captain announced that there 
 was no hope of out-sailing her, should their course 
 be altered; nor would there be hope in a conflict, 
 as those shi]3S usually carried one hundred and fifty 
 men. Yet he judged that if no eifort were made 
 to shun the privateer, the a23pearance of his ship 
 might deter from an attack. The gentlemen were 
 of the same opinion. Mr. Spalding, heart-sick at 
 thought of the perilous situation of his wife and mo- 
 ther, and unwilling to trust himself with an interview 
 till the crisis was over, requested the captain to go 
 below and make what preparation he could for their 
 secmity. After a few minutes' absence the captain 
 returned to describe a most touching scene. Mrs. 
 Spalding had placed her daughter-in-law and the 
 other inmates of the cabin for safety in the two state- 
 rooms, filling the berths with the cots and bedding 
 from the outer cabin. She had then taken her sta- 
 tion beside the scuttle, which led from the outer cabin 
 to the magazine, with two buckets of water. Having 
 noticed that the two cabin boys were heedless, she had 
 determined herself to keep watch over the magazine. 
 She did so till the danger was past. The captain took 
 
274 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 in Ms light sails, hoisted his boarding nettings, open- 
 ed his ports, and stood on upon his course. The pri- 
 vateer waited till the ship was within a mile, then fired 
 a gun to windward, and stood on her way. This ruse 
 preserved the ship."* 
 
 Mrs. Ellet 
 
COUEAGEOUS ACT OF MKS. DILLAED. 
 
 Thy country, glorious, brave and fair. 
 Thine all of life — . 
 
 Her name alone thy heart's depths stin*ed. 
 And filled thy soul with war-like pride. 
 
 Saea J. Clarke. 
 
 The day before tlie battle at the Green Spring, in 
 the Spartanburg district, South Carolina, Colonel 
 Clarke, of the Georgia volunteers, with about two 
 hundred men, stopped at the house of Captain Dillard 
 and were cordially welcomed to a good supply of re- 
 freshments. In the evening of the same day, Colo- 
 nel Ferguson and another officer named Dunlap, with 
 a party of tories, arrived at the same house and inqui- 
 red of the mistress, if Colonel Clarke had been there, 
 to which question she gave a direct and honest an- 
 swer. He then inquired in regard to the time of 
 Clarke's departure and the number of his men. She 
 could not guess their number, but said they had been 
 gone a long time. She was then ordered to get sup- 
 per, which she did, though in a less hospitable spirit 
 than she had prepared the previous meal. While at 
 work, she overheard some of the conversation of the 
 officers, by which she learned that they were bent on 
 
^io NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 surprising Colonel Clarke, and would start for tliat 
 purpose when supper was dispatched. As soon as the 
 food was on the table, Mrs. Dillard hurried out at the 
 back door, bridled a horse that stood in the stable, 
 and mounting without saddle, rode till nearly day- 
 light before reaching the Green Spring v/here Clarke 
 had encamped, and where he was to be attacked by 
 FergusoUj at the break of day or sooner, as she had 
 learned before starting. 
 
 She had just aroused the whigs and notified them 
 of their danger, when a detachment of two hundred 
 picked, mounted men, commanded by Dunlap, rushed 
 into the camp. They found their intended victims 
 ready for the charge ; were quickly driven out of the 
 camp, and glad to escape by flight. Thus, fortunately 
 for the friends of freedom, ended this battle, which, 
 but for the daring of a single patriotic woman, would 
 doubtless have resulted in the annihilation of the little 
 band of Georgia volunteers. 
 
PHOEBE PHILLIPS. 
 
 The secret pleasure of a generous act 
 
 Is the great mind's great bribe. 
 
 Deyden. 
 
 -Phoebe Foxcroft, afterwards the wife of Sanmei 
 Phillips, the joint founder, with his uncle, of the aca- 
 demy at Andover, Massachusetts, was a native of 
 Cambridge, in the same state. Reared beneath the 
 shades of " Old Harvard " and being the daughter of 
 a man of wealth and high respectability, it is almost 
 needless to say that she was well educated and highly 
 reSned. To mental attainments she added the finish- 
 ing charm of female character, glowing piety. The 
 last forty years or more of her life were passed at An- 
 dover, where, after the death of her husband, she 
 assisted in founding the celebrated Theological semi- 
 nary. She died in 1818. 
 
 It is said that she was accustomed, for years, to 
 make the health of every pupil in the academy a sub- 
 ject of personal interest. Her attentions to their 
 wants were impartial and incalculably beneficial. To 
 those that came from remote towns, and were thus 
 deprived of parental oversight, she acted the part 
 of a faithful mother. 
 
278 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 Affectionate, kind, generous, watchful, as a christian 
 guardian ; she was unbending, self-sacrificing and 
 " zealous, jet modest," as a patriot. During the seven 
 years' struggle for freedom, she frequently sat up till 
 midnight or past, preparing bandages and scraping 
 lint for the hospitals and making garments for the rag- 
 ged soldiers. 
 
 An offender of justice was once passing her house 
 on his way to the whipping-post, when a boy, who ob- 
 served him from her window, could not withhold a 
 tear. He tried to conceal his emotion, but Mrs. Phil- 
 lips saw the pearl drop of pity, and while a kindred 
 drop fell from her own eyes, she said to him, with 
 much emphasis and as though laying down some gol- 
 den maxim — " When you become a law maker, ex- 
 amine the subject of corporeal punishment, and see 
 if it is not unnatural, vindictive and productive of 
 much evil." She was very discriminating, and could 
 detect talent as well as tears ; and addressed the lad 
 with a premonition that he was destined to become a 
 legislator — ^which was indeed the case. Elected to the 
 assembly of the state, with the sacred command of his 
 early and revered mentor impressed on his memory, 
 he early called the attention of that body to the sub- 
 ject of corporeal punishment; had the statute book 
 revised and the odious law, save in capital offences, 
 expxm^ged, and the pleasure of announcing the fact to 
 the original suggestor of the movement. 
 
WOETHY EXAMPLE OF A POOR WIDOW. 
 
 Howe'er it be, it seems to me 
 
 *Tis only noble to be good ; 
 Kind hearts are more than coronets, 
 And simple faith than Norman blood. 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 'The following article was communicated to the 
 Christian Watchman and Reflector, of Boston, for 
 January thirtieth, 1851. The facts are given without 
 coloring or embellishment. The subject of the article 
 has gone to the grave, but the influence of her ex- 
 emplary life has not ceased to be felt. Her 
 
 "Speaking dust 
 Has more of life than half its breathing moulda" 
 
 Some twenty years since, the writer became pastor 
 of a church in the town of B. A few weeks after 
 my settlement, I called at the humble dwelling of a 
 poor widow, with whom I had already become some- 
 what acquainted. Having been apprised of the high 
 estimation in which she was held by the church of 
 which she was a member, for her cheerful and con- 
 sistent, piety, an interesting and profitable interview 
 was anticipated. I had been seated but a few mo- 
 ments when she placed in my hand one dollar, and 
 
280 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 proceeded, by way of explanation, to make the fol- 
 lowing statements, which I give as nearly as possi- 
 ble in her own language : 
 
 " Before yon came among ns, onr church and peo- 
 ple where in a very depressed and disheartened con- 
 dition. For two or three Sabbaths we had no reli- 
 gious services during the day. How sad to be as 
 sheep without a shepherd, and to have the house of 
 God closed on his holy day I If the Lord would only 
 send us a pastor, I felt willing to do any thing in 
 my power to aid in sustaining him. But then the 
 thought occurred to me, What can you do, a poor 
 widow, with four small children to support, and your 
 house rent to pay ? It is quite as much as you 
 can do to meet necessary expenses. For a moment 
 I was sad ; but my mind still dwelt upon the sub- 
 ject, until finally this ^^lan occurred to me : ' God 
 has blessed you with excellent health, and you can 
 sit up and work between the hours of nine and 
 eleven or twelve o'clock at night ; and what you 
 thus earn you can give for that object.' I was at 
 once relieved, and resolved before the Lord that, 
 if he would send us a pastor, I would immediately 
 commence my labors, and do what I could to aid 
 in sustaining and encouraging him. I felt that now 
 I could pray consisteutly, as I was willing to do 
 my duty. With a faith and fervor to which I had 
 before been a stranger, I besought the Lord speedily 
 to favor us with an under-shepherd ; and soon you 
 came here to preach for us. I believed God sent 
 you ; and although at first you had no idea of re- 
 
OF AMERTCAIsr WOMEN. 281 
 
 maining, I never doubted that you would become 
 our pastor. As soon as you had accepted the call of 
 the church, I began to work in accordance with 
 my vow, and that dollar is the result of my earning, 
 the last four weeks. And O, you would rejoice 
 with me, could you know how much I have enjoyed 
 these silent hours of night, when my children around 
 me are wrapt in slumber, and all is as the stillness 
 of the grave. The Lord has been with me continually, 
 and I have had uninterrupted communion w^ith him. 
 When God had given us a pastor, I felt I must pray 
 for a blessing to attend his labors among us ; and, 
 often have I been so impressed with the importance 
 of a revival of religion, and the conversion of my 
 children, and the people of this place, that I have 
 been obliged to leave my work, and kneel down be- 
 fore my Maker, and earnestly plead with him that 
 his Spirit may accomplish this work. Even after I 
 had retired to rest, I have sometimes been obliged 
 to arise and pray that he would save the souJs of 
 this people. And, blessed be his holy name, he has 
 listened to prayer for this object also. When I 
 heard of the numbers who attended the religious 
 inquiry meeting, and the hopeful conversion of some 
 to God, I felt I could say, ' This is the Lord, I have 
 waited for him ;' and I believe he will do greater 
 things than these in our midst. Thus has God bles- 
 sed one of the most unworthy of all his creatures ; 
 and I have often been led to sing, while I have 
 been laboring here, lowly as is my condition, 
 
282 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 *I would not change my blest estate, 
 "With all that earth calls rich or great; 
 And, while my faith can keep her hold, 
 I envy not the sinner's gold.' " 
 
 My attention had been absorbed with this inte- 
 resting and affecting narrative ; nor bad I any in- 
 clination to interrupt it with remarks of my own. 
 I now thought I could read the secret of the appa- 
 rent success which had attended my labors in so 
 short a time. As soon as 1 could recover from my 
 emotions, I said to her, I am grateful for your pray- 
 ers and this proffered donation ; but, as my parish 
 affords me a competent support, I can on no account 
 feel at liberty to appropriate to my own private use 
 the money thus earned. 'No ; you shall have the ad- 
 ditional satisfaction, while you are toiling at these 
 unseasonable hours of night, of knowing that what 
 you place in my hands shall be sacredly devoted 
 to the cause of Christian benevolence, which I am 
 sure you ardently love. With this she expressed 
 herself satisfied ; and continued her toils and prayers. 
 
 It may be asked. What was the result ? The an- 
 swer is recorded with pleasure, and, I trust, with 
 gratitude to God. Besides punctually attending all 
 the meetings of the church, and laboring much in 
 private for the eternal welfare of souls ; besides sup- 
 porting lier family with more ease than formerly, 
 as she stated to her pastor, at the close of the first 
 year, and paying her assessments in several chari- 
 table societies to w^hich she belonged, and also con- 
 tributing something whenever a public collection 
 
OF AlvrERICAN WOATON. 2 Si] 
 
 was taken for benevolent objects; in addition to all 
 tliis, she had pjaced in my hands ten dollars and a 
 half, which was appropriated as stated above. Her 
 donations for objects of religious charity mnst have 
 amounted to at least twelve dollars during that year, 
 which, it is presumed, exceeded the amount given for 
 similar objects by any other member of the church, 
 although quite a number possessed a comfortable 
 share of wealth. It may be thought that she was 
 engaged in some business which yielded a handsome 
 profit to reward her toils. But no ; her business 
 was shoe-binding, not then by any means very profita- 
 ble. And who, with her disposition and spirit, could 
 not do something to aid the cause of God ? But 
 what she earned and gave was not all. Her prayers, 
 it is believed, had secured for the church a pastor, 
 and been the means, with others, of the commence-, 
 ment of a revival of religion, which continued to 
 prevail to a greater or less extent, for three successive 
 years, during w^hich time a large number were hope- 
 fully converted and added to the church : and among 
 them several of her older children, who were away 
 from home 
 
ELIZABETH ESTAUGH. 
 
 A perfect woman, nobly planned, 
 To wai'n, to comfort and command ; 
 And yet a spirit still, and blight 
 With something of an angel light. 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 Elizabetli Iladdon was the oldest daughter of John 
 Haddon, a v/ell educated and wealthy, yet humble. 
 Quaker, of London. She had two sisters, both of 
 whom, with herself, received the highest finish of a 
 practical education. Elizabeth possessed uncommon 
 strength of mind, earnestness, energy and origi- 
 nality of character, and a heart overflowing with the 
 kindest and warmest feelings. A single anecdote of 
 her childhood, told by Mrs. Child,- will illustrate the 
 nobleness of nature which characterized her life : 
 
 "At one time, she asked to have a large cake 
 baked, because she wanted to invite some little girls. 
 All her small funds were expended for oranges and 
 candy on this occasion. When the time arrived, her 
 father and mother were much surj^rised to see her 
 lead in six little ragged beggars. They were, how- 
 ever, too sincerely humble and religious to express 
 any surprise. They treated the forlorn little ones 
 
OF AMERICAIJ WOMEN. 285 
 
 very tenderly, and freely granted their daughter's re- 
 quest to give them some of her books and playthings 
 at parting. "When they had gone, the good mother 
 quietly said, 'Elizabeth, why didst thou invite stran- 
 gers, instead of thy schoolmates?' There was a hea- 
 venly expression in her eye, as she looked up earn- 
 estly, and answered, ' Mother, I wanted to invite them, 
 they looked so poor.' " 
 
 When eleven years of age, she accompanied her 
 parents to the Yearly Mee'ting of the Friends, where 
 she heard, among other preachers, a very young man 
 named John Estaugh, witli whose manner of present- 
 ing divine truth she was particularly pleased. Many 
 of his words were treasured in her memory. At the 
 age of seventeen she made a profession of religion, 
 uniting herself with the Quakers. 
 
 During her early youth, l/^illiam Penn visited the 
 house of her father, and greatly amused her by de- 
 scribing his adventures with the Indians. From that 
 time she became interested in the emigrant Quakers, 
 and early began to talk of coming to America. Her 
 father at length purchased a tract of land in Kew 
 Jersey, with the view of emigrating, but his aifairs 
 took a new turn, and he made up his mind to remain 
 in his native land. This decision disappointed Eliza- 
 beth. She had cherished the conviction that it was 
 her duty to come to this country; and when, at 
 length, her father, who was unwilling that any of his 
 property should lie unimproved, offered the tract of 
 Laid in 'New Jersey to any relative who would settle 
 upon it, she promptly agreed to accept of the 
 
286 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 proffered estate. Willing that their child should fol- 
 low in the path of duty, at the end of thr^e months, 
 and after much prayer, the parents consented to let 
 Elizabeth join "the Lord's people in the New 
 World." 
 
 Accordingly, early in the spring of 1700, writes 
 Mrs. Child, in whose sweet language, slightly con- 
 densed, the rest of the narrative is told, arrange- 
 ments were made for her departure, and all things 
 were provided that the abundance of wealth, or the 
 ingenuity of affection, could devise. 
 
 A. poor widow of good sense and discretion accom- 
 panied her, as friend and housekeeper, and two trusty 
 men servants, members of the Society of. Friends. 
 Among the many singular manifestations of strong 
 faith and religious zeal, connected with the settle- 
 ment of this country, few are more remarkable than 
 the voluntary separation of this girl of eighteen years 
 old from a wealthy home and all the pleasant asso- 
 ciations of childhood, to go to a distant and thinly 
 inhabited country, to fulfill what she considered a 
 religious duty. And the humble, self-sacrificing faith 
 of the parents, in giving up their child, with such 
 reverend tenderness for the promptings of her own. 
 conscience, has in it something sublimely beautiful, 
 if we look at it in its own pure light. The parting 
 took place with more love than words can express, 
 and yet without a tear on either side. Even during 
 the long and tedious voyage, Elizabeth never wept. 
 She preserved a martyr-like cheerfulness and sere- 
 nity to the end. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 287 
 
 The house prepared for her reception stood in a 
 clearing of the forest, three miles from any other 
 dwelling. She arrived in June, when the landscape 
 was smiling in youthful beauty ; and it seemed to her 
 as if the arch of heaven was never before so clear and 
 bright, the carpet of the earth never so verdant. As 
 she sat at her window and saw evening close in upon 
 her in that broad forest home, and heard, for the 
 first time, the mournful notes of the whippo-wil and 
 the harsh scream of the jay in the distant woods, 
 she was oppressed with a sense of vastness, of infi- 
 nity, which she never before experienced, not even 
 on the ocean. She remained long in prayer, and 
 when she lay down to sleep beside her matron friend, 
 no words were spoken between them. The elder, 
 overcome with fatigue, soon sank into a peaceful 
 slumber ; but the young enthusiast lay long a^ ake, 
 listening to the lone voice of the whippo-wil com- 
 plaining to the night. Yet, notwithstanding this pro- 
 longed wakefulness, she arose early and looked out 
 upon the lovely landscape. The rising sun pointed 
 to the tallest trees with his golden finger, and was 
 welcomed with a gush of song from a thousand war- 
 blers. The poetry in Elizabeth's soul, repressed by 
 the severe plainness of her education, gushed lap like 
 a fountain. She dropped on her knees, and, with 
 an outburst of prayer, exclaimed fervently, " Oh, Fa- 
 ther, very beautiful hast thou made this earth ! How 
 bountiful are thy gifts, O Lord ! " 
 
 To a spirit less meek and brave, the darkei' shades 
 of the picture would have obscured these cheerful 
 
2(SS KOBLli DKEDS 
 
 gleams ; for the situation was lonely and the incon- 
 veniences innumerable. But Elizabeth easily tri- 
 umphed over all obstacles, by practical good sense 
 and the quick promptings of her ingenuity. She 
 was one of those clear strong natures, who always 
 have a definite aim in view, and who see at once 
 the means best suited to the end. Her first inquiry 
 was what grain was best adapted to the soil of her 
 farm ; and being informed that rye would yield best, 
 "Then I shall eat rye bread," was her answer. But 
 when winter came, and the gleaming snow spread 
 its unbroken silence over hill and plain, was it not 
 dreary then? It would have been dreary indeed to 
 one who entered upon this mode of life from mere 
 love of novelty, or a vain desire to do something ex- 
 traordinary. But the idea of extended usefulness, 
 which had first lured this remarkable girl into a 
 path so unusual, sustained her through all trials. She 
 was too busy to be sad, and leaned too trustingly 
 on her Father's hand to be doubtful of her way. The 
 neighboring Indians soon loved her as a friend, for 
 they found her always truthful, just, and kind. From 
 their teachings, she added much to her knowledge 
 of simple medicines. So efiicient was her skill and 
 so prompt her sympathy, that for many miles round, 
 if man, woman, or child were alarmingly ill, they 
 were sure to send for Elizabeth Haddon ; and wher- 
 ever she went, her observing mind gathered some 
 hint for the improvement of farm or dairy. Her 
 house and heart were both large; and as her resi- 
 dence was on the way to the Quaker meeting-house 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 289 
 
 in Newtown, it became a place of universal resort to 
 Friends from all parts of the country traveling that 
 road, as well as an asylum for benighted wanderers. 
 
 The winter was drawing to a close, when late one 
 evening, the sound of sleigh-bells was heard, and 
 the crunching of snow beneath the hoofs of horses, 
 as they papsed into the bam-yard gate. The arrival 
 of travelers was too common an occurrence to excite 
 or disturb the well-ordered family. 
 
 Great logs were piled in the capacious chimney, 
 and the flames blazed up with a crackling warmth, 
 when two strangers entered. In the younger, Eliza- 
 beth instantly recognized John Estaugh, whose preach- 
 ing had so deeply impressed her at eleven years 
 of age. This was almost like a glimpse of home — 
 her dear old English home! She stepped forward 
 with more than usual cordiality, saying: 
 
 "Thou art welcome, Eriend Estaugh; the more so 
 for being entii-ely unexpected." 
 
 "And I am glad to see thee, Elizabeth," he replied 
 with a friendly shake of the hand. " It was not until 
 after I landed in America, that I heard the Lord 
 had called thee hither before me; but I remember 
 thy father told me how often thou hadst played the 
 settler in the woods, when thou wast quite a little 
 girl." 
 
 "I am but a child still," she replied, smiling. 
 
 "I trust thou art," he rejoined; "and as for 
 
 these strong impressions in childhood, I have heard 
 
 of many cases where they seemed to be prophecies 
 
 sent of the T.ord. When I saw thy father in Lon- 
 19 
 
290 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 don, I had even then an indistinct idea that 1 
 might sometime be sent to America on a religious 
 visit." 
 
 " And hast thou forgotten, Friend John, the eaf of 
 Indian corn which my father begged of thee for me ? 
 I can show it to thee now. Since then I have seen 
 this grain in perfect growth; and a goodly plant it 
 is, I assure thee. See," she continued, pointing to 
 many bunches of ripe corn, which hung in their 
 braided husks against the walls of the ample kitch- 
 en; "all that, and more, came from a single ear, no 
 bigger than the one thou didst give my father- 
 May the seed sown by thy ministry be as fruitful!" 
 "Amen," replied both the guests. 
 
 The next morning, it was. discovered that snow 
 had fallen during the night in heavy drifts, and the 
 roads were impassable. Elizabeth, according to her 
 usual custom, sent out men, oxen and sledges, to 
 open pathways for several poor families, and for 
 households whose inmates were visited by illness. 
 In this duty, John Estaugh and his friend joined 
 heartilv :md none of the laborers worked harder 
 than^ they. When he returned, glowing from this 
 exercise, she could not but observe that the excel- 
 lent youth had a goodly countenance. It was not 
 physical beauty ; for of that he had little. It was 
 that cheerful, child-like, out-beaming honesty of ex- 
 pression, which we not unfrequently see in Ger- 
 mans, who, above all nations, look as if they carried 
 1 crystal heart within their manly bosoms. 
 Two days after, when Elizabeth went to visit her 
 
OV AMiERICAN (VOMJiN. i^Ql 
 
 ptitients, with a sled-load of medicines and provi- 
 sions, John asked permission to accompany her. 
 There, by the bedside of the aged and the suffering, 
 she saw the clear sincerity of his countenance 
 warmed with rays of love, while he spoke to them 
 words of kindness and consolation; and there she 
 heard his pleasant voice modulate itself into deeper 
 tenderness of expression, when he took little child- 
 ren in his arms. 
 
 The next First day, which we call the Sabbath, 
 the whole family attended ISTewtown meeting; and 
 there John Estaugh was gifted with an out-pouring 
 of the spirit in his ministry, which sank deep into 
 the hearts of those who listened to him. Elizabeth 
 found it so marvellously applicable to the trials and 
 temptations of her own soul, that she almost deem- 
 ed it was spoken on purpose for her. She said no- 
 thing of this, but she pondered upon it deeply. 
 Thus did a few days of united duties make them 
 more thoroughly acquainted with each other, than 
 they could have been by years of fashionable inter- 
 course. 
 
 The young preacher soon after bade farewell, to 
 visit other meetings in Pennsylvania and 'New Jer- 
 sey. Elizabeth saw him no more until the May 
 following, when he stopped at her house to lodge, 
 with numerous other Eriends, on their way to the 
 Quarterly Meeting at Salem. In the morning, quite 
 a cavalcade started from her hospitable door, on 
 horseback; for wagons were then unknown in Jer- 
 sey. John Estaugh, always kindly in his impulses, 
 
292 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 busied himself with helping a lame and very ugly 
 old woman, and left his hostess to mount her horse 
 as she could. Most young women would have felt 
 slighted; but in Elizabeth's noble soul the quiet 
 deep tide of feeling rippled with an inward joy. "He 
 is always kindest to the poor and the neglected," 
 thought she ; " verily he is a good youth." She was 
 leaning over the side of her horse, to adjust the 
 buckle of the girth, when he came up on horseback, 
 and inquired if anything was out of order. She 
 thanked him, with slight confusion of manner, and 
 a voice less calm than her usual utterance. He as- 
 sisted her to mount, and they trotted along leisurely 
 behind the procession of guests, speaking of the soil 
 and climate of this new country, and how wonder- 
 fully the Lord had here provided a home for his 
 chosen people. Presently the girth began to slip, 
 and the saddle turned so much on one side, that 
 Elizabeth was obliged to dismount. It took some 
 time to re-adjust it, and when they again started, 
 the company were out of sight. There was brighter 
 color than usual in the maiden's cheeks, and unwon- 
 ted radiance in her mild deep eyes. After a short 
 silence, she said, in a voice slightly tremulous, 
 "Friend John, I have a subject of importance on my 
 mind, and one which nearly interests thee. I am 
 strongly impressed that the Lord has sent thee to 
 me as a partner for life. I tell thee my impression 
 frankly, but not without calm and deep reflection; 
 for matrimony is a holy relation, and should be en 
 tered into with all sobriety. If thou hast no light 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 293 
 
 on the subject, wilt thou gather into the stillness, 
 and reverently listen to thy own inward revealings? 
 Thou art to leave this part of the country to-mor- 
 row, and not knowing when I should see the again, 
 I felt moved to tell thee what lay upon my mind." 
 
 The young man was taken by surprise. Though 
 accustomed to that suppression of emotion which 
 characterizes his religious sect, the color went and 
 came rapidly in his face, for a moment ; but he soon 
 became calmer, and replied, "This thought is new 
 to me, Elizabeth ; and I have no light thereon. Thy 
 company has been right pleasant to me, and thy 
 countenance ever reminds me of "William Penn's 
 title page, ' Innocency with her open face.' I have 
 seen thy kindness to the poor, and the wise man- 
 agement of thy household. I have observed, too, 
 that thy warm-heartedness is tempered by a most 
 excellent discretion, and that thy speech is ever 
 sincere. Assuredly, such is the maiden I would ask 
 of the Lord, as a most precious gift; but I never 
 thought of this connexion with thee. I came to 
 this country solely on a religious visit, and it might 
 distract my mind to entertain this subject at pre- 
 sent. When I have discharged the duties of my 
 mission, we will speak further." 
 
 "It is best so," rejoined the maiden; "but there 
 is one thing disturbs, my conscience. Thou hast 
 spoken of my true speech; and yet. Friend John, I 
 have deceived thee a little, even now, while we con- 
 ferred together on a subject so serious. I know not 
 from what weakness the temptation came; but 1 
 
294 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 will not hide it from thee. I allowed thee to sup- 
 pose, just now, that I was fastening the girth of my 
 horse securely; but, in plain truth, I was loosening 
 the girth, John, that the saddle might slip, and give 
 me an excuse to fall behind our friends; for I 
 thought thou wouldst be kind enough to come and 
 ask if I needed thy services." 
 
 They spoke no further concerning their union ; but 
 when he returned to England, in July, he pressed her 
 hand affectionately, as he said, "Farewell, Elizabeth. 
 If it be the Lord's will, I shall return to thee soon." 
 
 In October, he returned to America, and they 
 were soon married, at JSTewtown meeting, accor- 
 ding to the simple form of the Society of Friends. 
 J^either of them made any change of dress for the 
 occasion, and there was no wedding feast. Without 
 the aid of priest or magistrate, they took each 
 other by the hand, and, in the presence of witnes- 
 ses, calmly and solemnly promised to be kind and 
 faithful to each other. The wedded pair quietly re- 
 turned to their happy home, with none to intrude 
 upon those sacred hours of human life, when the 
 beart most needs to be left alone with its own deep 
 emotions. 
 
 During the long period of their union, she three 
 times crossed the Atlantic, to visit her aged pa- 
 rents, and he occasionally Jeft her for a season, 
 when called abroad to preach. These temporary 
 separations were felt as a cross, but the strong-hear- 
 ted woman always cheerfully gave him up to follow 
 bis own convictions of duty. In 1742, he parted 
 
OP AMERICAN WOMEN. 295 
 
 from her, to go on a religious visit to Tortola, in 
 the West Indies. He died there, in the sixty- 
 seventh year of his age. She published a religions 
 tract of his, to which is prefixed a preface entitled 
 "Elizabeth Estaugh's testimony concerning her be- 
 loved husband, John Estaugh." In this preface, she 
 says, " Since it pleased Divine Providence so high- 
 ly to favor me, with being the near companion of 
 this dear worthy, I must give some small account 
 of him. Few, if any, in a married state, ever lived 
 in sweeter harmony than we did. He was a pat- 
 tern of moderation in all things ; not lifted up with 
 any enjoyments, nor cast down at disappointments ; 
 a man endowed with many good gifts, which ren 
 dered him very agreeable to his friends, and much 
 more to me, his wife, to whom his memory is most 
 dear and precious." 
 
 Elizabeth survived her excellent husband twenty 
 years, useful and honored to the last. The month- 
 ly Meeting of Haddonfield, in a published testimo- 
 nial, speak of her thus: "She was endowed with 
 great natural abilities, which, being sanctified by 
 the spirit of Christ, were much improved; whereby 
 she became qualified to act in the afiairs of the 
 church, and was a serviceable member, having been 
 clerk to the women's meeting nearly fifty years, 
 greatly to their satisfaction. She was a sincere sym- 
 pathizer with the afflicted, of a benevolent disposi- 
 tion, and in distributing to the poor, was desirous 
 to do it in a way most profitable and durable to 
 them, and, if possible, not to let the right hand know 
 
296 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 what the left did. Though in a state of affluence 
 as to this world's wealth, she was an example of 
 plainness and moderation. Her heart and house 
 were open to her friends, whom to entertain seemed 
 one of her greatest pleasures. Prudently cheer- 
 ful, and well knowing the value of friendship, she 
 was careful not to wound it herself, nor to encou- 
 rage others in whispering supposed failings or weak- 
 nesses. Her last illness brought great bodily pain, 
 which she bore with much calmness of mind and 
 sweetness of spirit. She departed this life as one 
 falling asleep, full of days, like unto a shock of 
 com, fully ripe." 
 
 The town of Haddonfield, in 'New Jersey, took its 
 name from her; and the tradition concerning her 
 courtship is often repeated by some patriarch among 
 the Quakers. 
 
 Her medical skill is so well remembered, that the 
 old mn-ses of New Jersey still recommend Eliza- 
 beth Estaugh'ij salve as the " sovereignest thing on 
 earth." 
 
KATE MOOEE. 
 
 From lowest place when virtuous things proceed. 
 The place is dignified by the doer's deed. 
 
 Shaespeabe. 
 
 Kate Moore is the daughter of Captain Moore, 
 keeper of the Light House on Fairweather Island, 
 sixty miles north of the city of New York, and about 
 half way between the harbors of Black Rock and 
 Bridgeport, Connecticut. The island is about half a 
 mile from shore and contains five acres of land. On 
 that little, secluded spot Captain Moore has resided 
 nearly a quarter of a century, and has reared a fam- 
 ily of ^YQ children, of whom Kate is the heroine. 
 
 Disasters frequently occur to vessels which are 
 driven round Montauk Point, and sometimes in the 
 Sound, when they are homeward bound ; and at such 
 times she is always on the alert. She has so thoroughly 
 cultivated the sense of hearing, that she can distin- 
 guish amid the howling storm, the shrieks of the 
 drowning mariners, and thus direct a boat, which she 
 has learned to manage most dexterously, in the darkest 
 night, to the spot where a fellow mortal is perishing. 
 
2f)S JS'OIJLK DEEDS 
 
 Though well educated and refined, she possesses none 
 of the affected delicacy which characterizes too many 
 town-bred misses ; but, adapting herself to the peculiar 
 exigences of her father's humble yet honorable calling, 
 she is ever ready to lend a helping hand, and shrinks 
 from no danger, if duty points that way. In the gloom 
 and terror of the stormy night, amid perils at all hours 
 of the day, and all seasons of the year, she has launched 
 her barque on the threatening waves ; and has assisted 
 her aged and feeble father in saving the lives of twenty- 
 one persons during the last fifteen years ! Such con- 
 duct, like that of Grace Darling, to whom Kate Moore 
 has been justly compared, needs no comment ; it stamps 
 its moral at once and indelibly upon the heart of every 
 reader. 
 
CAF .'lYITY OF MRS. EOWLANDSON. 
 
 Through sorrowing and suffering thou hast pas8*d, 
 To show us what a woman time may be. 
 
 Lowell. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Eowlandson, the wife of the Eev. 
 Joseph Eowlandson, was taken prisoner bj the In- 
 dians at Lancaster, Massachusetts, on the tenth of 
 February, 1676, and remained in captivity till the 
 third of the following May. The details of her 
 sufferings, as related by herself, are too painful for 
 many persons to read ; but she bore them with such 
 Christian fortitude, that nothing short of a brief ac 
 count of her captivity would seem to be excusable 
 in a work like this. 
 
 The day after the destruction of Lancaster, the 
 Lidians began their march ; and Mrs. Eowlandson 
 carried her infant till her strength failed and she 
 fell. She was then furnished with a horse, without 
 a saddle. Attempting to ride, she again fell. 
 Towards night it began to snow; and gathering a 
 few sticks, she made a fire. Sitting beside it on the 
 snow, she held her child in her arms through the 
 long and dismal night. For three or four days she 
 
300 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 had no sustenance but water ; nor did her child share 
 any better for nine days. During this time it was 
 constantly in. her arms or lap. At the end of that 
 period, the frost of death crept into its eyes, and 
 she was forced to relinquish it to be disposed of 
 by the imfeeling sextons of the forest. 
 
 After its burial, Mrs. Kowlandson was sold by her 
 Narraganset captor to a Sagamore named Quanopin, 
 by which transfer she found in her new master's 
 wife "a most uncomfortable mistress." Soon after- 
 wards the Indians went on an expedition to Med- 
 field, and on their return one of them gave her a 
 Bible — her best friend and great support during 
 her sufferings and trials. She retained it during 
 her captivity. 
 
 The party of Indians with whom she continued, 
 remained for some time near Petersham, in Wor- 
 cester county. At length, hearing a report that the 
 pale faces were in pursuit of them, they hastily 
 decamped and continued their march till they cros- 
 sed the Connecticut river, in the neighborhood ot 
 Gill or Bernardston. There Mrs. Kowlandson came 
 in contact with the great chief, Philip, who treated 
 her civilly and even politely. Ere long the Indians 
 re-crossed the Connecticut, and returned into Worces- 
 ter county. During this part of her pilgrimage, 
 writes President D wight, whose concise narrative we 
 have followed, " Mrs. Rowlandson went through 
 almost every suffering but death. She was beaten, 
 kicked, turned out of doors, refused food, insulted 
 in the grossest manner, and at times almost starved. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 301 
 
 Nothing but experience can enable us to conceive 
 what must be the hunger of a person, by whom 
 the discovery of six acorns, and two chestnuts, was 
 regarded as a rich prize. At times, in order to 
 make her miserable, they announced to her the death 
 of her husband and her children. One of the 
 savages, of whom she enquired concerning her son, 
 told her that his master had, at a time which he 
 specified, killed and roasted him; that himself had 
 eaten a piece of him, as big as his two fingers, and 
 that it was delicious meat. On various occasions 
 they threatened to kill her. Occasionally, but for 
 short intervals only, she was permitted to see her 
 children; and sufiered her own anguish over again 
 in their miseries. She was also obliged, while hardly 
 able to walk, to carry a heavy burden over hills, 
 and through rivers, swamps, and marshes ; and that 
 in the most inclement seasons. These evils were 
 repeated daily; and, to crown them all, she was 
 daily saluted with the most barbarous and insolent 
 accounts of the burning and slaughter, the tortures 
 and agonies, inflicted by them upon her countrymen. 
 It is to be remembered that Mrs. Howlandson was 
 tenderly and delicately educated, and as ill fitted to 
 encounter these distresses as persons who have re- 
 ceived such an education, now are in this and other 
 countries. 
 
 "There was, however, among the savages a marked 
 difference of character. Some of them, both men 
 and women, treated her with kindness. ITone of 
 them exhibited so much insolence to her as her 
 
302 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 mistress. This woman felt all tlie hangMiness of 
 rank, as much as if she had been a European or 
 Asiatic princess; and spent almost as much time 
 in powdering her hair, painting her face, and adorn- 
 ing herself with ear-rings, bracelets, and other 
 ornaments, a part of their plunder from the Eng- 
 lish." 
 
 The captivity of Mrs. Howlandson was terminated 
 through the agencj of Mr. Hoar, of Concord, Massa- 
 chusetts. Under a commission from the Government 
 he redeemed her for about eighty dollars, which 
 sum was contributed by a Mr. Usher and some 
 female friends in Boston. 
 
MES. BOZAETH. 
 
 To weakness strength succeeds, and po-wer 
 From frailty springs. 
 
 Park Benjamin. 
 
 There's no impossibility to him 
 
 Who stands prepared to conquer every hazard. 
 
 Mrs. Hale. 
 
 In the spring of 1YT9, while' two or three neighbor- 
 ing families, had, from fear, collected at the house of 
 Mrs. Bozarth, in Green comity, Pennsylvania, the 
 little company was one day attacked by Indians. 
 The children, who were playing without, first dis- 
 covered the foe, and, giving the alarm, had not time 
 to get within doors before they were overtaken, and 
 began to fall beneath the tomahawk. The first man 
 who stepped to the door when the alarm was heard, 
 was shot, and fell back; and before the door could 
 be closed, an Indian leaped over him into the house. 
 The other man in the house caught the savage and 
 threw him on the bed. He then called for a knife, 
 but Mrs. Bozarth, being unable to find one, seized 
 an axe and instantly dispatched the bold assailant. 
 Another Indian now rushed in, and shot at and 
 
304 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 wounded the man before lie was off the bed. Mrs 
 Bozarth gave this second intruder several blows, 
 when his cries brought a third to the door. Him 
 she killed as he entered. The wounded savage was 
 then dragged out; the door again closed and fast- 
 ened ; and, through the assistance of the wounded 
 man, Mrs. Bozarth was able to keep out the rest 
 of the murderous assailants until relieved by the 
 arrival of friends. 
 
THE HEEOINE OF STEEL CKEEK. 
 
 Here and there some stem, high patriot stood. 
 
 Btron. 
 
 The subject of the following anecdote was the 
 mother of eleven sons. Most of them were soldiers 
 and some were officers in the war of the Revolution. 
 Her residence was in Mechlenburg county, near Steel 
 creek, North Carolina. 
 
 When Lord Cornwallis heard of the defeat of Fer- 
 guson at King's Mountain,* fearing an attack of 
 his rear at Camden, he collected his forces and re- 
 treated towards Winnsboro. While on this march, 
 his whole army halted for the night on the planta- 
 tion of Robert Wilson. Cornwallis and his staff 
 took possession of the house, and made an unstinted 
 levy on the hospitality of the good lady. By asking 
 such questions as a British lord would, under the 
 circumstances, feel at liberty to propound, the Gen- 
 eral learned, in the course of the evening, that the 
 husband of Mrs. Wilson, and some of her sons, were 
 then his prisoners in Camden jail. Her kindness 
 
 ^„ * October seventh, 1780. 
 
306 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 and urbanity led him to think that perhaps she 
 was a friend to the Crown; and, after some pre- 
 liminary remarks, intended to prepare her mind 
 for the leading consideration which he wished to 
 enforce upon it, he at length addressed her as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 " Madam, your husband and your son are my pri- 
 soners ; the fortune of war may soon place others of 
 your sons — perhaps all your kinsmen, in my power. 
 Your sons are young, aspiring and brave. In a good 
 cause, fighting for a generous and powerful king, such 
 as George III, they might hope for rank, honor and 
 wealth. If you could but induce your husband and 
 sons to leave the rebels, and take up arms for theii 
 lawful sovereign, I would almost pledge myself that 
 they shall have rank and consideration in the British 
 army. If you, madam, will pledge yourself to in- 
 duce them to do so, I will immediately order their 
 discharge." 
 
 "I have seven sons," Mrs. Wilson replied, "who are 
 now, or have been, bearing arms — indeed my seventh 
 son, Zaccheus, who is only fifteen years old, I yester- 
 day assisted to get ready to go and join his brothers 
 in Sumter's army. I^ow, sooner than see one of my 
 family tm-n back from the glorious enterprise, I 
 would take these boys — pointing to three or four 
 small sons — and with them would myself enlist, 
 under Sumter's standard, and show my husband and 
 sons how to fight, and, if necessary, to die for their 
 country ! " 
 
OF AMEKICAU WOMEN. 307 
 
 Colonel Tarleton was one of the listeners to this 
 colloquy, and when Mrs. Wilson had finished her 
 reply, he said to Cornwallis : " Ah ! General ! 1 
 think you've got into a hornet's nest! Never mind, 
 when we get to Camden, I'll take good care that old 
 Kobin "Wilson never comes back again!" We may 
 add that Tarleton's threat was never executed. Mr. 
 Wilson and his worthy companion lived to old age, 
 and died at Steel creek just before the war of 1813 
 
BEKEYOLElSrCE OF A COLOEED WOMAK. 
 
 Great minds, like Heaven, are pleased in doing gooa. 
 
 RowE. 
 
 The following anecdote is obtained from a reliable 
 source. Did the spirit which pervaded the " heart of 
 its subject, thoroughly permeate the churches, the 
 great work of carrying the Gospel to every nation, 
 would soon be accomplished. 
 
 " In one of the eastern counties of ISTew York lived 
 a colored female, who was born a slave, but she was 
 made free by the act gradually abolishing slavery 
 in that state. She had no resources except such as 
 she obtained by her own labor. On one occasion she 
 carried to her pastor /b/"?^ dollars : she told him that 
 she wished him, with two dollars of this sum to pro- 
 cure for her a seat in his church ; eighteen dollars she 
 desired to be given to the American Board ; and the 
 remaining twenty dollars she requested him to divide 
 among other benevolent societies according to his 
 discretion." 
 
KEBECCA EDWAEDS. 
 
 Honor being then above life, dishonor must 
 
 Be worse than death ; for fate can strike but one . 
 
 Reproach doth reach Avhole families. 
 
 Cartwright's Siege. 
 
 At the celebration of our national Independence, 
 in 1Y97, the orator of the society of the Cincinnati 
 of South Carolina, paid the following tribute to the 
 magnanimity of Mrs. Eebecca Edwards: — "The 
 Spartan mother, on delivering his shield to her son 
 departing for the army, nobly bade him ' return with 
 it or on it.' The sentiment was highly patriotic, but 
 surely not superior to that which animated the bosom 
 of the distinguished female of our own state, who, 
 when the British officer presented the mandate which 
 arrested her sons as objects of retaliation, less sensi- 
 ble of private affection than attached to her honor 
 and the interest of her country, stifled the tender 
 feelings of the mother, and heroically bade them 
 despise the threats of their enemies, and steadfastly 
 persist to support the glorious cause in which they 
 had engaged — that if the threatened sacrifice should 
 follow, they would carry a parent's blessing, and the 
 good opinion of every virtuous citizen along with 
 
310 
 
 NOBLE DKKDS 
 
 them to the grave: but if from the frailty of human 
 nature — of the possibility of which she would not 
 suffer an idea to enter her mind — they were disposed 
 to temporize, and exchange their liberty for safety, 
 they must forget her as a mother, nor subject her 
 to the misery of ever beholding them again." * 
 
 • American Anecdotes, voL 2, p. 11. 
 
"THE BEAUTIFUL KEBEL." 
 
 Trembling and fear 
 Are to her unknown. 
 
 Sib Walter Scott. 
 
 The maiden name of Mrs. Lewis Morris was Ann 
 Elliott. She was born at Maccabee, in 1762, and 
 died in 'New York, in 1848. She was a firm and 
 fearless patriot, and when the city of Charleston, 
 South Carolina, was in possession of the red coats, 
 she wore thirteen small plumes in her bonnet. She 
 had so fair a face, so graceful a form and so patri- 
 otic a spirit, as to be called "the beautiful rebel." 
 An English officer fell in love with her and offered 
 to join the Americans, if she would favor his propo- 
 sals. She ordered the friend who interceded for 
 him to say to him, "that to her former want of 
 esteem, was added scorn for a man capable of bo 
 traying his sovereign for selfish interest." 
 
 While she was engaged to Colonel Morris and 
 he was on a visit one time at Maccabee, the house 
 was suddenly surrounded by Black Dragoons. They 
 wej-e in pursuit of the Colonel, and it was impossi- 
 
312 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 ble for him to escape by flight. What to do he 
 knew not, but, quick as thought, she ran to the 
 window, opened it, and, fearlessly putting her head 
 out, in a composed yet firm manner, demanded what 
 
 was wanted. The reply was, " We want the 
 
 rebel." "Then go," said she, "and look for him 
 in the American army," adding "How dare you 
 disturb a family under the protection of both 
 armies ! " She was so cool, self-possessed, firm and 
 resolute as to triumph over the dragoons, who left 
 without entering the house 
 
HAEEIET B. STEWART. 
 
 Men sacrifice others — women themselves. 
 
 Mrs. S. C. Hall. 
 
 Harriet Bradford Tiffany, afterwards the wife of 
 the Kev. Charles S. Stewart, was born near Stamford, 
 Connecticut, on the fourth of June, 1Y98. She lost 
 her father when she was a small child, and till 
 1815, passed most of her time with an uncle, in 
 Albany. At this date, an older sister married and 
 settled in Cooperstown, and consequently Harriet 
 took up her abode in that place. She became the 
 subject of renewing grace in the summer of 1819 ; 
 was married on the third of June, 1822, and sailed 
 with her husband and nearly thirty other mission- 
 aries, all bound to the same field, on the nineteenth 
 of IS'ovember following. This little, heroic band, that, 
 by the help of God, have since been mainly instru- 
 mental in making the Sandwich islands blossom like 
 a rose, arrived at Honolulu, in Oahu, on the twenty- 
 seventh of April, 1823. 
 
 Mrs. Stewart left a beautiful town in a thriving 
 part of the Empire State ; tempting luxuries ; a bril- 
 liant circle, and many endearing friends; but she 
 
314 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 had embarked in a glorious enterprise foi Christ'^, 
 sake, and, hence, she settled down in a little log hut, 
 in the town of Lahaina, three days' sail from Oahu 
 contented and happy. On the first day of January 
 1824, she wrote as follows : "It is now fifteen months 
 since I bade adieu to the dear valley which con 
 tains much, very much, that is most dear- to me ; but 
 since the day I parted from it, my spirits have been 
 uniformly good. Sometimes, it is true, a cloud ot 
 tender recollections passes over me, obscuring, for 
 a moment, my mental vision, and threatening a day 
 of darkness ; but it is seldom. And as the return- 
 ing sun, after a summer shower, spreads his beams 
 over the retiring gloom of the heavens, and stretches 
 abroad the shining arch of promise to cheer the 
 face of nature, so, at such times, do the rays of the 
 Sun of Righteousness speedily illumine the hopes 
 of my soul, and fill my bosom with joy and 
 peace." 
 
 A few months after the above date, writing to a 
 friend, she says : " We are most contented and most 
 happy, and rejoice that God has seen fit to honor 
 and bless us by permitting us to be the bearers of 
 his light and truth to this dark corner of the earth. 
 Could you feel the same gladness that often fills 
 our bosoms, in witnessing the happy influence of 
 the Gospel on the minds and hearts of many of 
 these interesting creatures, you would be satisfied, 
 j-es more than satisfied, that we should be what we 
 are, mid wJiere loe are^ jpoov missionaHes in the 
 distamt islands of the seaP 
 
 m 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 316 
 
 . In these brief extracts from her letters, shines, in 
 its serenest lustre, the character of the Christian 
 heroine : * and it would be an easy task to compile 
 a volume of letters written on the field of moral 
 conflict by American female missionaries, breathing 
 a spirit equally as unselfish, cheerful and brave. 
 All pioneer women in this enterprise are heroines, 
 and if the conflicts and sublime victories of all 
 claiming American citizenship, are not herein re- 
 corded, it is because, in a work of unambitious pre- 
 tensions as it regards size, a few characters must 
 stand as representatives of a class. 
 
 So pernicious was the influence of a tropical 
 climate that, in the spring of 1825, the health of 
 Mrs. Stewart began to fail ; and at the end of a 
 year, she was forced to leave the country. She 
 sailed, with her husband, for London ; and after 
 tarrying three months in England, they embarked 
 for home. They reached the valley of the Otsego 
 in September, 1826. For three or four years, it was 
 the prayer of Mrs. Stewart that she might be re- 
 stored to health and permitted to return to the mis- 
 sion station ; but in January, 1830, she was laid on 
 a bed of declension and suffering, and in the fol- 
 lowing autumn, fully ripe, was gathered into the 
 heavenly gamer. 
 
 * For a full account of the life of Mrs. Stewart, we refer the reader 
 to an iDteresting Memoir, by her liugband. 
 
A EUSTD AND BEJSTEYOLEJSTT WOMAN, 
 
 Ah ! woman — in this vs^orld of oui-s, 
 What gift can be compared to thee. 
 
 Geoege p. MofiBis. 
 
 Mrs. Margaret Morris, of Burlington, Il^ew Jersey, 
 kept a journal during the Revolution, for the amuse- 
 ment, it is said, of a sister, the wife of Dr. Charles 
 Moore, of Philadelphia. A few copies were printed 
 several years ago, for private circulation, supplying 
 friends with a mirror which reflects the image of 
 expanded benevolence and exalted piety. Belonging 
 to the Society of Friends, she was not partial to 
 
 " The shot, the shout, the groan of war ;" 
 
 yet her principles were patriotic, and she no doubt 
 rejoiced over all the victories and in the final and 
 complete success of the "rebel" army. She became 
 a widow at an early age, and died at Burlington, in 
 1816, aged seventy-nine years. 
 
 A single extract from her journal will illustrate 
 the most prominent feature of her character: 
 
 "June 14th, ITYT. By a person from Bordentown, 
 we hear twelve expresses came in there to-day from 
 
OP AMERICAN WOMEN. 317 
 
 camp. Some of the gondola-men and their wives 
 being sick, and no doctor in town to apply to, they 
 were told Mrs. Morris was a skillful woman, and 
 kept medicines to give to the poor; and notwith- 
 standing their late attempts to shoot my poor boy, 
 they ventured to come to me, and in a very humble 
 manner begged me to come" and do something for 
 them. At first I thought they designed to put a 
 trick on me, get me aboard their gondola, and then 
 pillage my house, as they had done some others; 
 but on asking where the sick folks were, I was told 
 they were lodged in the Governor's house. So I 
 went to see them ; there were several, both men and 
 women, very ill with fever ; some said, the camp or 
 putrid fever. They were broken out in blotches; 
 and on close examination, it appeared to be the 
 itch fever. I treated them according to art, and 
 they all got well. I thought I had received all my 
 pay when they thankfully acknowledged my kind- 
 ness ; but lo ! in a short time afterwards a very 
 rough, ill-looking man came to the door and asked 
 for me. When I went to him he drew me aside, 
 and asked if I had any friends in Philadelphia. 
 The question alarmed me, supposing there was 
 some mischief meditated against that poor city; 
 however, I calmly said — 'I have an ancient father, 
 some sisters, and other near friends there.' 
 
 " ' Well,' said the man, ' do you wish to hear from 
 them, or send any thing by way of refreshment to 
 them ? If you do, I will take charge of it, and bring 
 you back any thing you may send for.' 
 
318 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 "I was very mucJi surprised, and thought, to be 
 sure, he only wanted to get provisions to take to the 
 gondolas ; but when he told me his wife was one of 
 those I had given medicine to, and this was the only 
 thing he could do to pay me for my kindness, my 
 heart leaped with joy, and I set about preparing 
 something for my dear, absent friends. A quarter 
 of beef, some veal, fowls and flour, were soon put up ; 
 and about midnight the man called and took them 
 aboard his boat. He left them at Eobert Hopkins' 
 — at the point — whence my beloved friends took 
 them to town. 
 
 "Two nights afterwards, a loud knocking at our 
 front door greatly alarmed us, and opening the cham- 
 ber window, we heard a man's voice, saying, ' Come 
 down softly and open the door, but bring no light.' 
 
 "There was something mysterious in such a call; 
 but we concluded to go down and set the candle in 
 the kitchen. 
 
 " When we got to the front door, we asked, ' Who 
 are you ? ' 
 
 "The man replied, 'A friend; open quickly.' So 
 the door was opened ; and who should it be but our 
 honest gondola-man, with a letter, a bushel of salt, a 
 jug of molasses, a bag of rice, some tea, coffee, and 
 sugar, and some cloth for a coat for my poor boys ; 
 all sent by my kind sisters ! 
 
 9 
 
 " How did our hearts and eyes overflow with love 
 to them, and thanks to our Heavenly Father for such 
 seasonable supplies ! May we never forget it ! Beii-g 
 now so rich, we thought it our duty to hand out a 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 
 
 319 
 
 little to the poor around us, who were mourning for 
 want of salt ; so we divided the bushel, and gave a * 
 pint to every poor person who came for it — having 
 abundance left for our own use. Indeed, it seemed 
 to us as if our little store was increased by distribu- 
 tion, like the bread broken by our Sav.bur to the 
 multitude." 
 
NOBLE EXAMPLE OF PIOI^fEEKS. 
 
 In every rank, or great or small, 
 'T is industry supports us all. 
 
 Count life by virtues — these will last 
 When life's lame-footed race is o'er. 
 
 Mbs. Hale. 
 
 • 
 
 In the year 1843, the Hon. Samuel Wilkeson, of 
 Buffalo — since deceased — communicated to the 
 American Pioneer, a series of papers entitled " Early 
 Recollections of the West." They present a graphic, 
 yet painful picture of the perils, hardships and suf- 
 ferings attendant on back-woods life in the midst 
 of the aboriginal foresters. His father's family was 
 one of twenty that removed from Carlisle and the 
 adjacent towns, to the western part of Pennsylvania, 
 in the spring of 1T84. He pays the following 
 tribute to the industry, perseverance and pious efforts 
 of the mothers of the band : 
 
 The labor of all the settlers was greatly interrup- 
 ted by the Indian war. Although the older settlers 
 had some sheep, yet their increase was slow, as the 
 country abounded in wolves. It was therefore the 
 
OP AMERICAN WOMEN. 321 
 
 work of time to secure a supply of wool. Deerskin 
 was a substitute for cloth for men and boys, but not 
 for women and girls, altliougli they were sometimes 
 compelled to resort to it. The women spun, and 
 generally wove all the cloth for their families, and 
 when the wife was feeble, and had a large family, 
 her utmost efforts could not enable her to provide 
 them with anything like comfortable clothing. The 
 wonder is, and I shall never cease to wonder, that 
 they did not sink under their burthens. Their 
 patient endurance of these accumulated hardships 
 did not arise from a slavish servility, or insensibility 
 to their rights and comforts. They justly apprecia- 
 ted their situation, and nobly encountered the diffi- 
 culties which could not be avoided. 
 
 Possessing all the affections of the wife, the tender- 
 ness of the mother, and the sympathies of the woman, 
 their tears flowed freely for others' griefs, while 
 they bore their own with a fortitude which none 
 but a woman could exercise. The entire educa- 
 tion of her children devolved on the mother, and 
 notwithstanding the difficulties to be encountered, 
 she did not allow them to grow up wholly without 
 instruction ; but amidst all her numerous cares taught 
 them to read, and instructed them in the principles 
 of Christianity. To accomplish this, under the cir- 
 cumstances, was no easy task. The exciting influ- 
 ences which surrounded them, made the boys restless 
 under restraint. Familiarized as they were to hard- 
 ships from the cradle, and daily listening to stories 
 of Indian massacres and depredations, and to the 
 
322 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 neroic exploits of some neighboring pioneer, who had 
 taken an Indian scalp, or by some daring effort saved 
 his own, ignorant of the sports and toys with which 
 children in other circumstances are wont to be amused, 
 no wonder they desired to emulate the soldier, or en- 
 gage in the scarcely less exciting adventures of 
 the hunter. Yet even many of these boys were 
 subdued by the faithfulness of the mother, who la- 
 bored to bring them up in the fear of God. 
 
ANECDOTE OF MKS. SLOCUMB. 
 
 Our country yet remains: 
 By that dread name, we wave the sword on high, 
 And swear for lier to live — with her to die ! 
 
 Campbell. 
 
 One of the spiciest specimens of colloquial spar- 
 ring, vis-a-vis, in our Revolutionary annals, was 
 between Colonel Tarleton and the wife of Lieutenant 
 Slocumb, of Wayne county, ITorth Carolina.* The 
 Attic wit and Spartan boldness of the latter, exhibit 
 original powers of mind, strength of will, and a 
 degree of self-possession truly grand and ennobling. 
 But the character of the heroine of " Pleasant 
 Green," is most luminous in her conduct at the 
 battle of Moore's Creek, which occurred on the 
 twenty-seventh of February, 1Y76. She tells the 
 story of her adventures on that bloody occasion, as 
 follows : 
 
 "The men all left on Sunday morning. More 
 than eighty went from ,this house with my husband ; 
 I looked at them well, and I could see that every 
 man had mischief in him. I know a coward as 
 
 • Vide Women of the Revolution, vol. 1. pp. 306-7, etc. 
 
324r NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 soon as I set my eyes upon him. The tories more 
 than once tried to frighten me, but they always 
 showed coward at the bare insinuation that our 
 troops were about. 
 
 "Well, they got off in high spirits, every man 
 stepping high and light. And I slept soundly and 
 quietly that night, and worked hard all the next 
 day; but I kept thinking where they had got to — 
 how far; where and how many of the regulars and 
 tories they would meet; and I could not keep my- 
 self from the study. I went to bed at the usual 
 time, but still continued to study. As I lay — 
 whether waking or sleeping I know not — I had a 
 dream ; yet it was not all a dream. (She used the 
 words, unconsciously, of the poet who was not then 
 in being.) I saw distinctly a body wrapped in my 
 husband's guard-cloak — bloody — dead; and others 
 dead and wounded on the ground about him. I 
 saw them plainly and distinctly. I uttered a cry, 
 and sprang to my feet on the floor; and so strong 
 was the impression on my mind, that I rushed in 
 the direction the vision appeared, and came up 
 against the side of the house. The fire in the room 
 gave little light, and I gazed in every direction to 
 catch another glimpse of the scene. I raised the 
 light; every thing was still and quiet. My child 
 was sleeping, but my woman was awakened by my 
 crying out or jumping on the floor. If ever I felt 
 fear it was at that moment. Seated on the bed, I 
 reflected a few moments — ^and said aloud: 'I must 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. .-'if;) 
 
 go to him.' I told the woman I could not sleep, 
 and would ride down the road. She appeared in 
 great alarm; but I merely told her to lock the 
 door after me, and look after the child. I went to 
 the stable, saddled my mare — as fleet and easy a 
 nag as ever traveled; and in one minute we were 
 tearing down the road at full speed. The cool 
 night seemed after a mile or two's gallop to bring 
 reflection with it; and I asked myself where I was 
 going, and for what purpose. Again and again, I 
 was tempted to turn back; but I was soon ten 
 miles from home, and my mind became stronger 
 every mile I rode. I should find my husband dead 
 or dying — was as firmly my presentiment and con- 
 viction as any fact of my life. When day broke 
 I was some thirty miles from home. I knew the 
 general route our little army expected to take, and 
 had followed them without hesitation. About sunrise 
 I came upon a group of women and children, stand- 
 ing and sitting by the road-side, each one of them 
 showing the same anxiety of mind I felt. Stopping 
 a few minutes I inquired if the battle had been 
 fought. They knew nothing, but were assembled on 
 the rode side to catch intelligence. They thought 
 Caswell had taken the right of the "Wilmington road, 
 and gone towards the north-west (cape Fear). Again 
 was I skimming over the ground through a country 
 thinly settled, and very poor and swampy; but 
 neither my own spirits nor my beautiful nag's failed 
 in the least. We followed the well-marked trail of 
 the troops. 
 
326 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 " The sun must have been well up, say eight or 
 nine o'clock, when I heard a sound like thunder, 
 which I knew must be cannon. It was the first 
 time I ever heard a caimon. I stopped still; when 
 presently the cannon thundered again. The battle 
 was then fighting. What a fool ! my husband could 
 not be dead last night, and the battle only fighting 
 now ! Still, as I am so near, I will go on and see 
 how. they come out. So away we went again, faster 
 than ever ; and I soon found, by the noise of the 
 guns, that I was near the fight. Again I stopped. 
 I could hear muskets, I could hear rifles, and I 
 could hear shouting. I spoke to my mare and dashed 
 on in the direction of the firing and the shouts, now 
 louder than ever. The blind path I had been follow- 
 ing brought me into the Wilmington road leading 
 to Moore's creek bridge, a few hundred yards below 
 the bridge. A few yards from the road, under a 
 cluster of trees were lying perhaps twenty men. 
 They were the wounded. I knew the spot; the 
 very trees ; and the position of the men I knew 
 as if I had seen it a thousand times. I had seen 
 it all night ! I saw all at once ; but in an instant 
 my whole soul was centered in one spot; for there, 
 wrapped in his bloody guard-cloak, was my hus- 
 band's body ! How I passed the few yards from 
 my saddle to the place I never knew. I remem- 
 ber uncovering his head and seeing a face clothed 
 with gore from a dreadful wound across the temple. 
 I put my hand on the bloody face; 'twas warm; 
 and an unlcnown voice begged for water. A small 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 327 
 
 camp-kettle was lying near, and a stream of water 
 was close by. I brought it ; poured some in his 
 mouth ; washed his face ; and behold — it was Frank 
 Cogdell. He soon revived and could speak. I was 
 washing the wound in his head. Said he 'It is 
 not that; it is that hole in my leg that is killing 
 me.' A puddle of blood was standing on the ground 
 about his feet. I took his knife, cut away his trow- 
 sers and stockings, and found the blood came from 
 a shot hole through and through the fleshy part of 
 the leg. I looked about and could see nothing that 
 looked as if it would do for dressing wounds but 
 some heart-leaves. I gathered a handful and bound 
 them tight to the holes ; and the bleeding stopped. 
 I then went to the others; and — Doctor! I dressed 
 the wounds of many a brave fellow who did good 
 fighting long after that day ! I had not inquired for 
 my husband; but while I was busy Caswell came 
 up. He appeared very much surprised to see me ; 
 and was with his hat in hand about to pay some 
 compliment: but I interrupted him by asking — 
 ' "Where is my husband ? ' 
 
 " ' Where he ought to be, madam ; in pursuit of 
 the enemy. But pray,' said he, ' how came you here ?' 
 
 " ' Oh, I thought,' replied I, ' you would need 
 nurses as well as soldiers. See! I have already 
 dressed many of these good fellows ; and here is 
 one' — going to Frank and lifting him up with my 
 arm under his head so that he could drink some 
 more water — 'would have died before any of you 
 men could have helped him.' 
 
328 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 "'I believe you,' said Frank. Just then I looked 
 up, and mj husband, as bloody as a butcher, and as 
 muddy as a ditcher,* stood before ine. 
 
 " ' Why, Mary ! ' he exclaimed, ' What are you 
 doing there ? Hugging Frank Cogdell, the greatest 
 reprobate in the army ? ' 
 
 " ' I dont care,' I cried. ' Frank is a brave fellow, 
 a good soldier, and a true friend to Congress.' 
 
 " ' True, true ! every word of it ! ' said Caswell. 
 'You are right, madam,' with the lowest possible 
 bow. 
 
 " I would not tell my husband what brought me 
 there. I was so happy ; and so were all ! It was 
 a glorious victory ; I came just at the height of the 
 enjoyment. I knew my husband was surprised, but 
 I could see he was not displeased with me. It was 
 night again before our excitement had at all subsi- 
 ded. Many prisoners were brought in, and among 
 them some very obnoxious ; but the worst of the 
 tories were not taken prisoners. They were, for the 
 most part, left in the woods and swamps wherever 
 they were overtaken. I begged for some of the poor 
 prisoners, and Caswell readily told me none should 
 be hurt but such as had been guilty of murder and 
 house-burning. In the middle of the night I again 
 mounted my mare and started for home. Caswell 
 and my husband wanted me to stay till next morn- 
 ing, and they would send a party with me ; but no ! I 
 
 * It "was his company that forded tlie creek, and, penetrating the 
 swamp, made the furious charge on the British left and rear which 
 decided the fate of the day. — [Mrs. Ellet. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 8?/9 
 
 wanted to see my child, and I told them they could 
 send no party who could keep up with me. What 
 a happy ride I had back! and with what joy did 
 I embrace my child as he ran to meet me ! " * 
 
 * Mrs. Slocutnb was a dignified and generous matron, a kind and 
 liberal neighbor, and a Christian of indomitable fortitude and 
 inexhaustible patience. After four or five years' extreme bodily suf- 
 fering, resulting from a complication of diseases, she died, on the sixth 
 of March, 1836, aged seventy-six years. 
 
CAPTAIJSr EICHARDSOlSr BAYED BY 
 HIS WIFE. 
 
 Love, lend me wings to make tliis pm-pose swift, 
 As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift. 
 
 Shaksi'Eare. 
 
 During the struggle for Independence, Captain 
 Richardson, of Sumter district. South Carolina, was 
 obliged to conceal himself for a while in the thickets 
 of the Santee swamp. One day he ventured to visit 
 his family — a perilous movement, for the British had 
 offered rewards for his apprehension, and patrolling 
 parties were almost constantly in search of him. — 
 Before his visit was ended, a small band of soldiers 
 presented themselves in front of the house. Just as 
 they were entering, with a great deal of composure 
 and presence of mind, Mrs. Richardson appeared at 
 the door, and found so much to do there at the 
 moment, as to find it inconvenient to make room for 
 the uninvited guests to enter. She was so calm, and 
 appeared so unconcerned, that they did not mistrust 
 the cause of her wonderful diligence, till her husband 
 had rushed out of the back door and safely reached 
 the neighboring swamp. 
 
STEIEHSTG ESTSTAlSrCE OF PATIEISICE. 
 
 Patience and resignation are the pillars 
 Of human peace on earth. 
 
 Young. 
 
 The panegyric of Decker on patience is beautiful : 
 
 Patience, my lord! why 'tis the soul of peace : 
 Of all the virtues 'tis the nearest kin to heaven ; 
 It makes men look like gods. 
 
 ISTot every Christian sufferer wears this garment 
 in its celestial whiteness, as did the God-man, whom 
 the same writer calls 
 
 "the best of men 
 That e'er wore earth about him." 
 
 One of the most patient beings in modem times 
 was Miss Sarah Parbeck, of Salem, Massachusetts. 
 A lady who visited her in 1845, gives the following 
 account of the interview: 
 
 The door was opened by a very old lady, wrinkled 
 and bowed down with age, who invited us to enter. 
 The room was so dark, that, before my eyes were 
 accommodated to the change, I could only see a 
 figure dressed in white, sitting upon the bed and 
 rocking to and fro. This motion was attended by a 
 
332 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 sound like the click of wooden machinery, which 
 arose, as I afterwards discovered, from the bones, as 
 they worked in their loosened sockets. As we ap- 
 proached, she extended her hand to my companion, 
 and said, in a painful but affectionate voice, " Eliza, 
 I am very glad to see thee ; " and then asked my 
 name and place of residence. She had just given 
 me her hand, when a spasm seized her, and it was 
 twitched suddenly from my grasp. It flew som^ four 
 or five times with the greatest violence against her 
 face, and then, with a sound, which I can only com- 
 pare to that made by a child who has been sobbing 
 a long time, in catching its breath, she threw up both 
 her arms, and with a deep guttural groan was flung 
 back upon her pillow, with a force inconceivable 
 to one who has not witnessed it. The instant she 
 touched the bed, she uttered that piercing shriek 
 again, and sprung back to her former position, 
 rocking to and fro, with those quick, heart-rending 
 groans which I had heard while standing at the door. 
 It was several minutes before she could speak, and 
 then there was none to answer her. Both my com- 
 panion and myself were choked with tears. Her 
 poor mother went to the other side of the bed, and 
 smoothed the coverlid, and re-arranged the pillows, 
 looking sadly upon her poor child, writhing in torture 
 which she could not alleviate. I became faint, and 
 trembled with sudden weakness: a cold perspiration 
 stood upon my face. The objects in the room began 
 to swim about me, and I was obliged to take hold 
 of the bedside for support. I have been in oui 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 333 
 
 largest hospitals, and have spent hours in going from 
 room to room with the attending physician. I have 
 witnessed there almost every form of human suffer- 
 ing, but I had never beheld any thing to be com- 
 pared to that now before me. She afterwards told 
 me, as if in apology for her screams, that when she 
 was hurled back upon her pillow, both shoulders were 
 dislocated, and as they sprung back into their sockets, 
 the pain was far beyond endurance, and extorted 
 from her these shrieks. 
 
 Her sentences were broken, uttered with much diffi- 
 culty, and frequently interrupted by the terrible 
 spasm I have described above. Yet this was her 
 " quiet " state ; this the time when she suffered least. 
 Day after day, night after night, fowrteen wea/ry years 
 have dragged themselves along, whilst her poor body 
 has been thus racked, ^o relief; no hope of relief, 
 except that which death shall give. When I asked 
 her if her affliction did not at times seem greater 
 than she could bear, " O ! never," she replied. " I 
 cannot thank God enough for having laid his heavy 
 hand upon me. I was a thoughtless sinner, and had 
 he not, in his mercy, afflicted me, I should probably 
 have lost my immortal soul. I see only his kind- 
 ness and love. The sweet communion I have with 
 my Saviour more than compensates me for all I 
 suffer. I am permitted to feel, in a measure, in my 
 poor body, what he suffered to save me, and my soul 
 can never grow weary in his praise.^' This last sen- 
 tence, I must say, gave me an argument which put 
 doubts of the verity and power of religion to flight. 
 
334 ' NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 more effectually than all the eyidences which the 
 wisdom of man has arrayed against the skeptic; 
 and I could not but exclaim, "If this be delusion 
 let me be deluded!" 
 
 She spoke in the most tender terms of her Sa- 
 viour's love. Her conversation was in heaven, from 
 whence also she looked for her Saviour, knowing 
 that he should change her body of humiliation, and 
 fashion it like unto his glorious body. I shall never 
 forget the tones and language in which she entreated 
 my sobbing companion to give that Saviour her heart. 
 As she recovered from a spasm, I said to her, " do 
 you not often desire to depart, and be with the 
 Saviour you love so fervently ? " She had hardly re- 
 covered her exhausted breath, but replied with great 
 decision, "By the grace of God, I lia/ce Timer had 
 that wish. Though death will be a welcome gift 
 when my Father sees fit to bestow it upon me, yet, 
 thanks to his supporting grace, I can wait his time 
 without impatience. He sees that there is much 
 dross to refine away, and why should I wish against 
 his will?" 
 
 I remained by her side for more than an hour ; 
 such, however, were the attractions of her discourse, 
 that I was unconscious of the time. I know not 
 when I have been so drawn towards a fellow Christ- 
 ian, and never had I been led to such delightful 
 contemplations of our Saviour's character — his faith 
 fulness and love. I remarked to her, as I tm'ned 
 to go away, " God has made you a powerful preacher, 
 here upon your bed of pain." " O," she replied. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN, '/..\l) 
 
 *' if he will make me the instrument of saving but 
 a single soul, I am willing to live and suffer here 
 until my hair is gray with age." I noticed some 
 bottles standing upon a small table, and asked her 
 if she found any relief from opiates. " Through God's 
 kindness," she answered, " I probably owe the preser- 
 vation of my life thus far to an extract made from 
 blackdrop." ''Does it enable you to sleep?" "Ono," 
 she replied, " I have not knovsn sleep for a very long 
 time." " What ! " I cried, " do you never rest ? " A 
 severe spasm here seized her, and it was some time 
 before she could answer me ; she had been attacked in 
 this way some twelve or fifteen times whilst conver- 
 sing with us, and frequently in the midst of a reply. 
 When she recovered, she said the physicians thought 
 she obtained rest in her "long spasm," which lasted 
 for more than an hour. "During that time," she 
 continued, "I am dead to every thing but a sense 
 of the most extreme anguish, I see and hear nothing; 
 I only feel as though I was being crushed in pieces 
 by some immense weight." This was her rest ! the 
 rack ! Yet, through all this suffering, the smiles of 
 God penetrated to her heart. She sees him just, 
 and acknowledges his love 
 
SUSAE^NAH ELLIOTT. 
 
 — - The painted folds thus fly, 
 And lift their emblems, printed high 
 On morning mist and sunset sky. 
 
 Holmes. 
 
 (She showed that her soft sex contains strong mind. 
 
 Sir W. Davenant. 
 
 Susannali Smith, afterwards the wife of Colonel 
 Barnard Elliott, was a native of South Carolina. 
 Ramsay, in his history of that state, and other 
 authors, give a glowing account of her presentation 
 of a pair of colors to the second South Carolina 
 regiment of infantry, commanded by Col. Moultrie. 
 The ceremony took place on the twenty-eighth of 
 June, '76, two or three days after the attack on Fort 
 Moultrie, Sullivan's island. The colors, which were 
 embroidered by her own hand, were presented in 
 these words : " Your gallant behavior in defence of 
 liberty and your country, entitles you to the highest 
 honors : accept these two standards as a reward 
 justly due to your regiment ; and I make not the least 
 doubt, under Heaven's protection, you will stand by 
 them as long as they can wave in the air of liberty." 
 
OF AMEKICAN WOMEN. 337 
 
 Mrs. Elliott had a plantation called "The Hut," 
 and while there she once had three American 
 gentlemen as guests. These she was obliged to hurry 
 into a closet one day, on the sudden approach of the 
 enemy ; ^ and, opening a secret door, she showed 
 them a narrow apartment back of the chimney, 
 which she had contrived expressly for a hiding place. 
 Two of the guests entered, and were saved, while 
 the third, attempting to flee on horse-back, was ovei^ 
 taken and slain. 
 
 After the British had thoroughly, though ineffec- 
 tually, searched the house, and failed, by many 
 threats, to persuade the mistress to disclose the hi- 
 ding place of the others, they demanded her silver. 
 Pointing to some mounds of earth near by, as they 
 made the demand, they asked if the j)late was not 
 buried there.* She told them, in reply, that those 
 mounds were the graves of British soldiers who had 
 died under her roof. The officers did not believe her, 
 and made two of the soldiers dig till they came to one 
 of the coffins, which was opened and which verified 
 her assertion. The enemy then departed, when the two 
 guests came forth, filled with gratitude to their kind 
 and ingenious hostess for the free use of this singular 
 apartment. 
 
 * The silver was buried in a trunk, and remained in a marshy bed till 
 the close of the wax. When disinterred, it had turned black. 
 22 
 
AISTECDOTES OF ANNA ELLIOTT. 
 
 ** The spark of noble courage cow awake. 
 And strive your excellent self to excel." 
 
 The wife of Charles Elliott, of Charleston, South 
 Carolina, was one of those dames of Seventy-six 
 who " appeared to concentrate every thought and 
 every hour of existence to the interests of America." 
 She cheered the prisoner, befriended the unjustly 
 persecuted, comforted the sick, fed the hungry, and 
 was humane alike to enemies and friends. Major 
 Garden has paid her the following compliment: "I 
 do not know an officer who did not owe to her some 
 essential increase of comfort." 
 
 A British officer, whose cruel and persecuting 
 disposition was well known to Mrs. Elliott, was 
 walking with her in a flower garden one day, when, 
 pointing to the chamomile he asked, "What is 
 this, madam?" She at once replied, "The rebel 
 flower." "And why," asked he, "is it called the 
 rebel flower?" " Because," answered she, "it always 
 flourishes most when trampled upon." 
 
 At another time, while an officer of the royal 
 army was in her house at Charleston, a French 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 339 
 
 officer, belonging to Pulaski's legion, passed; and 
 pointing to him, he vociferated, " There, Mrs. Elliott, 
 is one of your illustrious allies. What a pity the 
 hero is minus his swordP The sj^irit of the woman 
 w^as roused, and she replied, " Had two thousand 
 such men been here to aid in the defence of our 
 city, I should not at this moment, sir, have been 
 subjected to the insolence of your observation." 
 
 When her father, the brave and zealous patriot,. 
 Thomas Ferguson, w^as put on board a transport 
 ship at Charleston, ^preparatory to exile, she hastened 
 from the country, where she chanced to be, and 
 begged permission to receive his parting blessing. 
 Her request being granted, she went on board the 
 ship. Just as she entered the cabin, she was over- 
 come with grief, and iainted. When recovered, she 
 addressed her father as follows : " Let not oppression 
 shake your fortitude, nor the hope of gentler treat- 
 ment cause you for a moment to swerve from strict 
 duty. Better times are in store for us : the bravery 
 of the Americans, and the friendly aid of France, 
 will achieve the deliverance of our country from 
 oppression. We shall meet again, my father, and 
 meet with joy." * 
 
 * A similar spirit was exliibited by the wife of Isaac Holmes, one 
 of tlie number who were sent into exile at St. Augustine. Just as the 
 guard were separating him from his family, she said to him, "Waver 
 not in your principles, but be true to your country. Have no fears for 
 your family ; God is good, and will provide for them." 
 
PATEIOTIC STEATAGEM. 
 
 What bosom beats not in its country's cause ? 
 
 Pops. 
 
 While the Legislature of Yirginia was in session 
 at Charlottesville, Colonel Tarleton, with his famous 
 band of cavalry, made a secret march to that place, 
 in order to captm-e the Governor and some pnblic 
 stores there collected. Several of the Assembly-men 
 were at the house of Colonel John Walker, a dozen 
 miles distant, and directly on Tarleton's route. Colo- 
 nel Walker was absent on duty in the lower part 
 Df the state. Tarleton came suddenly up to the 
 door, and succeeded in making one or two prisoners, 
 the other members fleeing to town. He then ordered 
 breakfast for himself and his whole corps, which 
 the shrewd lady of the house prepared in the 
 slowest manner possible. This she did in order that 
 the members who had fled to the capital, might 
 attend to the removal or concealment of the stores, 
 in the preservation of which she was deeply interested. 
 Her stratagem succeeded ; and, after tarrying a day 
 or two at Charlottesville, Tarleton went empty away. 
 
INFLTJElSrCE OF A FAITHFUL TEACHEE. 
 
 Spread out earth's holiest records here. 
 
 SPRAGUE. 
 
 "About the first of September, 1833, a deep and 
 solemn interest upon the subject of religion, began 
 to be visible in the Presbyterian cburcb and con- 
 gregation of "Wasbingtonyille, New York, and par- 
 ticularly in the Sabbath school. One teacher, feeling 
 deeply the responsibility resting upon her, and the 
 worth of immortal souls, before the school was dis- 
 missed on the Lord's day, affectionately requested 
 her class, consisting of little girls about twelve or 
 thirteen years of age, to remain after the rest of 
 the school had retired. She then began, with an 
 aching heart and with flowing tears, to reason and 
 plead with them upon the subject of personal religion. 
 They were deeply affected, and 'wept bitterly' in 
 view of their lost condition. They then aU knelt 
 together before the Lord, and the teacher prayed 
 for their salvation ; and immediately the scholar next 
 to her commenced praying for herself, and then the 
 next, and so on, until the whole class, with ardent 
 supplications, begged for the forgiveness of their sins, 
 
342 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 and the salvation of their souls. It would take 
 Jong to tell the history of this class, and relate par- 
 ticular instances of conversions, and the happj 
 changes which took place in the families to which 
 thej belonged, and show the family altars which 
 were established. These scholars, with their teacher 
 and their fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, 
 were ere long seen commemorating a Saviour's dying 
 love together. The revival extended itself to other 
 towns, and the great' day can alone unfold the 
 astonishing results." 
 
THE WIFE OF THOMAS HEYWAED. 
 
 What I will, I will, and there's an end. 
 
 Shakspeake. 
 
 Immediately after the victory of the British at Guil- 
 ford, order was given for the illumination of Charles- 
 ton, South Carolina. This order, Major Garden 
 informs us, ^ the wife of Thomas Heyward of that 
 city refused to obey ; and when an officer asked 
 her the reason of her disobedience, she replied, "Is 
 it possible for me, sir, to feel a spark of joy? Can 
 I celebrate the victory of your army while my 
 husband remains a prisoner at St. Augustine ? " En- 
 raged at her obstinacy, he told her she should 
 illuminate. "]N^ot a single light shall be placed, with 
 my consent, on any occasion, in any v/indow in the 
 house," was her fearless reply. He then threatened 
 to destroy her house before midnight. "You have 
 power to destroy, sir," she said, "and seem well 
 disposed to use it, but over my opinions you possess 
 no control. I disregard your menaces, and resolutely 
 declare, / will not illumninate ! " As good as her 
 word, she did^ not, nor was her house destroyed. 
 
 Revolutionary Anecdotes, First Series 
 
344 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 Orders were given, at another time, for an illumi- 
 nation on the anniversary of the battle and surrender 
 of Charleston,* and Mrs. Hey ward again refused to 
 obey. The mob was so indignant as to pelt her 
 house with brickbats ; and while engaged in the mean 
 act, a feeble and emaciated sister of Mrs. Hey ward 
 — Mrs. George A. Hall — expired! When the town 
 major heard of this painful circumstance, he tried to 
 apologize to Mrs. Hey ward, expressing regret for the 
 indignities and damages, and offering to repair the 
 building. She received his personal courtesies, but 
 refused his proffered aid in making repairs, hinting, 
 at the same time, that it was hardly possible for the 
 authomties, in that waj^, to remedy insults the offering 
 of which their baseness had probably j)rompted and 
 and which they could and should have prevented. 
 
 • May tweKth, 1781. 
 
J^^OBLE DEOISIOiq. 
 
 We are born to do benefits. 
 
 Shakspeake. 
 
 When the news was received in Illinois, a few 
 years ago, that, owing to a deficiency of funds, the 
 Ceylon missionaries had been obliged to dismiss 
 thousands of pupils from their schools, and that 
 twenty-five dollars would revive any one of them, 
 a minister of that state laid the subject before his 
 small and poor church, and between pastor and peo- 
 ple twenty-five dollars were promptly raised. Going 
 home and communicating the intelligence to his wife, 
 the minister learned that she had been weighing the 
 subject, and was anxious, in some w^ay, to raise enough 
 herself alone to resuscitate a school. Her husband 
 told her she could do it by dispensing with a tomb 
 stone which had been ordered from JSTew York for a 
 child lately deceased, and which would cost twenty- 
 five dollars. She promptly consented to have the or- 
 der countermanded, saying that " living children de- 
 manded her money more than the one that was 
 dead." By suffering the love of Christ to triumph 
 over maternal feeling, she re-opened a mission school, 
 and the day of judgment will reveal the great amount 
 of good thereby accomplished. 
 
A TElSriSTESSEE HEEOHSTE, 
 
 It is held 
 That valor is the chiefest vii'tue ; 
 Most dignifies the haver : if it be, 
 The man I speak of cannot in the world. 
 Be singly counterpoised. 
 ^ Shakspeare. 
 
 Milton A. Hajnes, Esq., of Tennessee, furnished 
 for Mrs. Ellet's "Women of the Revolution a length j 
 and very interesting sketch of Sarah Buchanan, of 
 East Tennessee. The following anecdotes, extracted 
 therefrom, exhibit the heroism of her character : 
 
 On one occasion, Sarah and a kinswoman named 
 Susan Everett were returning home from a visit a 
 mile or two distant, careless of danger, or not think- 
 ing of its presence. It ws.s late in the evening, 
 and they were riding along a path through the open 
 woods, Miss Everett in advance. Suddenly she 
 stopped her horse, exclaiming, "Look, Sally, yonder 
 are the red skins ! " l!^ot more than a hundred 
 yards ahead was a party of Indians armed with 
 rifles, directly in their path. There was no time for 
 counsel, and retreat w^as impossible, as the Indians 
 might easily intercept them before they could gain 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 347 
 
 a fort in their rear. To reach their own block-house. 
 
 four or five hundred yards distant, was their only 
 hope of safety. Quick as thought, Sarah whispered 
 to her companion to follow and do as she did, and 
 then instantly assuming the position of a man on 
 horseback, in which she was imitated by her rela- 
 tive, she urged her horse into a headlong gallop. 
 Waving their bonnets in the air, and yelling like 
 madmen, they came furiously dov/n upon the sava- 
 ges, who had not seen them, crying out as they 
 
 came — " Clear the track, you red skins ! " The 
 
 part was so well acted, that the Indians took them 
 for the head of a body of troopers, who were 
 making a deadly charge upon them, and dodging 
 out of the path, fled for very life — and so did Sally 
 and Susan ! Before the savages had recovered from 
 their fright, the two girls were safe within the gates 
 of the fort, trembling like frightened fawns at the 
 narrow escape which they had made. 
 
 On another occasion, when her husband and ail 
 the men of the fort were absent, two celebrated 
 horse-thieves, who had taken refuge with the Indi- 
 ans, came and demanded of Mrs. Buchanan two 
 of the Major's fine horses. Knowing their lawless 
 character, she pretended acquiescence, and went with 
 them to the stable, but on arriving at the door she 
 suddenly drew a large hunting knife from under 
 her apron, and assuming an attitude of defiance, 
 declared that if either of them dared to enter the 
 stable, she would instantly cut him down. Struck 
 by her intrepid bearing, they fell l^ack, and although 
 
848 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 they tried to overcome her resolution by threats 
 and bravado, she maintained her ground, and the 
 marauders were compelled to retire without the 
 horses. 
 
 On Sunday night,* about the hour of midnight, 
 while the moon was shining brilliantly, the Indian 
 army under Watts and the Shawnee, advancing in si- 
 lence, surrounded Buchanan's station. In order to 
 effect an entrance into the fort by a con{p de Tnain^ 
 they sent runners to frighten and drive in the horses 
 and cattle. This was done, and the animals came 
 dashing furiously towards the fort; but the garrison, 
 wrapped in slumber, heeded them not. The Avatch- 
 man, John McCrory, at this instant discovering the 
 savages advancing within fifty yards of the gates, 
 fired upon them. In an instant the mingled yells 
 of the savage columns, the crack of their rifles, and 
 the clatter of their hatchets, as they attempted to 
 cut down the gate, told the little squad of nineteen 
 men and seven women that the fearful war-cloud, 
 which had been rising so long, was about to bur^t 
 upon their devoted heads ! 
 
 Aroused suddenly from deep slumber by the ter- 
 rible war-whoop, every man and woman felt the 
 horror of their situation. The first impulse with 
 some was to surrender, and it is related of one 
 woman that she instantly gathered her five children 
 and attempted to go with them to the gate to yield 
 
 * In the autumn of 1792, -while the war with the Creeks and Chero- 
 keea was raging in the Cumberland valley. 
 
OF AMEEKMN wo:\ir:x. 349 
 
 themselves to the Indians. Mrs. Buchanan seized 
 her by the shoulder, and asked her where she was 
 going. 
 
 "To surrender myself and children to the Indi- 
 ans — if I don't they'll kill us, any how," exclaimed 
 the terrified woman. " Come back," said Mrs. Bu- 
 chanan, "and let us all fight and die together." 
 An old man, who waked up as it were in a dream, 
 seemed paralyzed, and exclaimed, in a plaintive 
 voice — " Oh, we shall all be murdered!" 
 
 "Get up then and go to fighting!" exclaimed 
 Mrs. Buchanan; "I'd be ashamed to sit crouched 
 up there when any one else is fighting. Better die 
 nobly than live shamefully ! " 
 
 In the mean time Major Buchanan had arranged 
 his men in the block-houses so as to rake the Indi- 
 ans by a flank fire, and was pouring a galling fire 
 into the head of the assaulting column. Yet, nothing 
 dismayed, the daring foe crowded against the gates, 
 their blows falling faster and heavier, while now 
 and then they attempted to scale the pickets. At 
 length, unable to do this or to force open the well- 
 barred and ponderous gate, the bold warriors ad- 
 vanced to the block-houses, and standing before 
 them, pointed their guns in at the port holes ; both 
 sides sometimes at the same instant firing through 
 the same opening. It was the policy of Major Bu- 
 chanan to impress upon them the idea that the fort 
 contained a large garrison. To do this it was neces- 
 sary for his men to fire their guns often, and occa- 
 sionally in volleys. At this crisis the whisper went 
 
350 ' NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 round — '^All is lost. Our bullets are out!" But 
 there were guardian angels whom these brave men 
 knew not of. Scarcely had the v/ords been spoken, 
 when Mrs. Buchanan passed around with an apron- 
 ful of bullets, which she and iNancj Mulherrin, 
 the Major's sister, had moulded, during the fight, 
 out of her plates and spoons. At the same time she 
 gave to each of the tired soldiers some brandy which 
 she carried in a pewter basin. During the contest 
 they had thus moulded three hundred bullets. Not 
 without their fun were these hardy men in this hour 
 of peril. In order to keep up a show of good spirits, 
 they frequently cried out to the Indians, " Shoot bul- 
 lets, you squaws! Why don't you put powder in 
 your guns ? " This was understood, for Watts and 
 many others spoke very good English, and they re- 
 plied by daring them to come out and fight like men. 
 In the midst of these banterings, Mrs. Buchanan dis- 
 covered a large blunderbuss which had been standing 
 in a corner during the fight and had not been dis- 
 charged, and gave it to an Irishman named O'Connor 
 to fire off. In telling the story afterwards the Irish 
 man said : An' she gave me the wide-mouthed fusee 
 and bad'e me to shoot that at the blasted creeters, and 
 Jimmy O'Connor he took the fusee, and he pulled the 
 trigger when the rest fired, for three or four times, 
 and loaded her again every time, and so ye see, yei 
 honor, when I pidled the trigger again, the fusee went 
 off, it did, and Jimmy O'Connor went under the 
 bed. This unequal contest lasted for four long hours, 
 and when the first blush of morning began to appear 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 351 
 
 in tlie east, most of the chiefs were killed or wounded. 
 The boastful Shawnee was transfixed in death, leaning 
 against the gate which he had so valorously assaulted ^ 
 the White Owl's son and Unacate, or the White-man- 
 killer, were mortally wounded, and John Watts was 
 borne off on a litter, shot through both legs. 
 
 During this protracted fight Mrs. Buchanan aided 
 the defenders by words and deeds, as if life or death 
 depended upon the efforts which she was then making. 
 She knew, and all knew, that if the assault could be 
 repelled for four hours, relief would come from the 
 neighboring posts. Foiled, discouraged, their leaders 
 disabled, this formidable army of savage warriors 
 precipitately retreated towards their country, bearing 
 off most of their wounded, yet leaving many dead 
 upon the field. This was the first formidable invasion 
 of Cumberland valley, and its tide v/as rolled back as 
 much by the presence of mind and heroic firmness 
 of Sarah Buclianan and N^ancy Mulherrin, as by the 
 rifles of their husbands and friends. The fame of this 
 gallant defence went abroad, and the young wife of 
 Major Buchanan was celebrated as the greatest he- 
 roine of the West. From 1780 to 1796, there was 
 not a year in which her family had not been ex- 
 posed to peril, in which, of course, she was a partaker."^ 
 
 * This heroic wonian died at Buchanan's Station, on the twenty- 
 third of JSToveniber, 1831. She sleeps on the site of the old fort that 
 witnessed her bravery ; and Carcas, queen of Carcassone, who defended 
 that city with such courage and resolution, when it was beseiged by 
 Charlemagne, that the Emperor permitted her to retain the sovereignty 
 of the place, has scarcely higher claims to historical commf moration, 
 * Author. 
 
MAGlSrAlSriMITY OF MES. M'KAY. 
 
 Greatness of mind, and nobleness, their seat 
 In her build loveliest. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 "In the beginning of Jnne, 1781, tlie Britisli garri- 
 son at Angusta, Georgia, capitulated to the American 
 forces, nnder command of General Pickens and Colo- 
 nel Lee, of the partizan legion. Colonel Grierson, 
 who was obnoxious to the Americans on account of 
 his barbarities, was shot down by an unknown hand, 
 after he was a prisoner. A reward of one hundred 
 guineas was offered to any person who would j)oint 
 out the offender, but in vain. Colonel Brown, the 
 British commander, expecting the same fate, con- 
 scious that he deserved it, from his unrelenting and 
 vindictive disposition towards the Americans, was 
 furnished with a guard, although he had hanged 
 thirteen American prisoners, and had given others 
 into the hands of the Indians to be tortured. On 
 his way to Savannah, he passed through the settle- 
 ments where he had burned a number of houses, 
 and hung some of the relatives of the inhabitants. 
 At Silverbluff," Mrs. M'Kay obtained leave of the 
 
Oir AJVIERTCAN WOMEN. 35?^ 
 
 American officer, who commanded his safeguard, to 
 speak to him : when she thus addressed him : — 
 ' Colonel Brown, in the late day of your prosperity, 
 I visited your camp, and on my knees supplicated 
 for the life of my only son, but you were deaf to 
 my entreaties; you hanged him, though a beardless 
 youth, before my face. These eyes have seen him 
 scalped by the savages under your immediate com- 
 mand, and for no better reason than that his name 
 was M'Kay. As you are now a prisoner to the 
 leaders of my country, for the present I lay aside all 
 thoughts of revenge, but when you resume your 
 sword, I will go five hundred miles to demand satis- 
 faction at the point of it, for the murder of my 
 son!'" 
 
 23 
 
HEKOIC CONDUCT OF A DAUGHTEE. 
 
 Fair -was her face, and spotless was her mind. 
 Where filial love with virgin sweetness joined. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Xantippe, a Eoman lady, who nursed her father, 
 the aged Cimonus, while he was a prisoner, and 
 thereby saved his life, rendered herself immortal by 
 this manifestation of filial affection. Bnt the " Eo- 
 man Charity " is not comparable to the following 
 extraordinary deed of filial sacrifice. 
 
 The winter of 1783 was nnnsnally severe, and 
 the sufferings of the poor in the city of 'New York 
 were very great. One family, consisting of the hus- 
 band, wife and one daughter, were, on one occasion, 
 reduced to the last stick of wood, and were wholly 
 destitute of provisions. The daughter, who had. 
 thus far supported her aged and infirm parents by 
 her industry, was out of work, and knew not what 
 to do. At this juncture of affairs, she recollected 
 that a dentist had advertised for sound fore-teeth, 
 and offered three guineas a piece for all he Vv^as 
 liiuiself permitted to extract. In the midst of her 
 grief, the generous girl suddenly brightened up, 
 
'IIIK (JPINKIiOl'S DKMIST, 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 355 
 
 and Lastened to the dentist's office. She made 
 known the condition of her parents, and offered to 
 dispose of all her fore-teeth on his terms. The 
 dentist, instead of extracting a tooth, with tears in 
 his eyes, placed in her hands ten guineas, and sent 
 her, rejoicing, to the relief of her parents. 
 
HEEOIC DECISION 
 
 No thought of flight, 
 
 None of retreat, no unbecoming deed 
 
 That argued fear. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 We Lave elsewhere in this work spoken of the 
 perils necessary to be encountered by Christian mis- 
 sionaries, and particularly those who connect them- 
 selves with stations in Africa. The history of the 
 Methodist Episcopal mission in that quarter of the 
 globe, presents a noble, if not a long, list of soldiers 
 who early fell there while contending with Error. 
 They sank upon the battle field, with their armor on 
 and covered with glory. They fell not before the 
 hosts of paganism; they were conquered by the 
 climate. Most of those who have not died on the 
 field, have been obliged to shortly flee to their native 
 land for the restoration of health. Here and there 
 one has withstood the adverse nature of the climate, 
 toiled for years, and done a noble work, which has 
 caused rejoicing in Heaven and honored the name 
 of Christ on earth. 
 
 Few persons, whose names are connected with the 
 history of modern missions, have jBkjayed a more de- 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 357 
 
 roted, self-sacrificing spirit, or greater moral courage, 
 than Miss Sophrouia Farrington. Prior to the autumn 
 of 1834, of six missionaries who had entered the field 
 in Africa under the patronage of American Me- 
 thodists, three ^' were in their graves, and two'f 
 had returned to the United States for health. Miss 
 Farrington stood alone, and the question arose, what 
 she should do. The officers of the Missionary Society 
 were willing she should return home, and her friends 
 were urging it upon her. "With her co-laborers all 
 dead or fled, she seemed herself to be left to the 
 alternative either to flee or fall. Should she choose 
 the former course, the mission would be wholly, and, 
 for ought she knew, for ever, abandoned. What then 
 should she do ? Like a hero, to use her own words, 
 she had "ofiered her soul upon the altar of her God, 
 for the salvation of that long benighted continent," 
 and with courage that shames the facer of the can- 
 non's mouth, she resolved to remain and toil alone, 
 beside the graves of her fallen companions till more 
 help should come or the Divine Husbandman close 
 the labors of the lone vine-dresser. More help 
 arrived in a few months, and, according to the 
 annual report of 1836, the mission, of whose history 
 she formed at one time the connecting link, "con- 
 tinued to loom up in bright perspective, and promise 
 a rich reward for all the labors and sufferings of 
 the faithful missionaries." 
 
 * Rev. M. B. Cox and Rev. O. S. "Wright and wife, 
 t Rev. Mr. ^^^ding and lady. 
 
THE DAUGHTEE OF AAEOI^ BJJKR. 
 
 *Ti3 thine on every heart to 'gi'ave thy praise, 
 A monument which Worth alone can raise. 
 
 Broome. 
 
 Theodosia, the only daughter of Aaron Burr, was 
 a woman of superior' mental accomplishments, and 
 very strong aifections. She was married to Joseph 
 Alston, Esq., afterwards Governor of South Carolina, 
 in 1801. She was then in her eighteenth year. That 
 she was an excellent wife may be gathered, not 
 merely from the story of her life, but from the testi- 
 mony of her husband. Writing to her father in 1S13 
 — soon after her death — he says, " The man who has 
 been deemed worthy of the heart of Theodosia Burr, 
 and has felt what it was to be blest with such a 
 woman's, will never forget his elevation." ^^ 
 
 In regard to her attachment to her father, a writer, 
 quoted in the appendix to Safford's Life of Blennei'- 
 hassett, remarks as follows : " Her love for her father 
 partook of the purity of a better world ; holy, deep, 
 unchanging; it reminds us of the affection which a 
 celestial spirit might be sujDposed to entertain for a 
 
 * Memoirs of Aaron Burr, by Matthew L.^iiris, voh 2, p. 432. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 359 
 
 parent cast down from heaven, for sharing in the sin 
 of the ' Son of the Morning.' 'No sooner did she 
 hear of the arrest of her father, than she fled to his 
 Bide.* There is nothing in hnman history more 
 touching than the hurried letters, blotted with tears, 
 in which she announced her daily progress to Eich- 
 mond; for she was too weak to travel with the 
 rapidity of the mail." 
 
 Had her health permitted, and occasion presented 
 itself, she would have matched in heroism any act in 
 the life of Margaret Roper or Elizabeth Cazotte.f 
 
 The trial of her father for treason, and his virtual 
 banishment, not only depressed her spirits, but fear- 
 fully racked her already feeble constitution, yet his 
 disgrace abated not a tittle the ardor of her affection ; 
 and when he returned from Europe, though in feeble 
 health, she resolved to visit him in the city of New 
 York. She was then in South Carolina. Embarking 
 in the privateer Patriot, on the thirteenth of January, 
 
 * He was imprisoned in Richmond, Virginia. — Author. 
 
 t Mrs. Roper accompanied her father. Sir Thomas More, to prison, 
 and after he was executed and his head had lain fourteen days on 
 London Bridge, she purchased it, and thus saved it from being thrown 
 into the Thames. For this intrepidity, by the king's orders she was 
 cast into prison — though she was soon permitted to escape. 
 
 Mademoiselle Cazotte was the daughter of an aged Frenchman, who, 
 on one occasion, during the Revolution in his countiy, would have lost 
 his life but for her courage. He was a " counter-revolutionist," and 
 after an imprisonment, during wliich his daughter chose to be immured 
 with him, on the second day of September, he was about to be slain. 
 An axe was raised over his head, when Elizabeth tlii-ew herself upon 
 him, and exclaimed, "Strike, barbarians; you cannot reach my fjither 
 but through my heart."^^he did other heroic deeds. 
 
360 
 
 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 1813, she was never heard of afterwards. The 
 schooner may have fallen into the hands of pirates; 
 but, as a heavy gale was experienced for several 
 days soon after leaving Georgetown, the probability 
 is that the craft foundered. Thus closed a life to 
 which the panegyrical exclamation of Milton happily 
 applies 1 
 
 glorious trial of exceeding love 
 lUustaious evidence, example high. 
 
FEMALE II^TEEPIDITT. 
 
 Be not dismayed — fear nurses up a danger. 
 And resolution kills it in the birth. 
 
 Phillips 
 
 During the war between the Indians and Ken 
 tuckians, while the owner of a plantation in a thinly 
 settled part of the state, was at work with his slaves 
 in the field, a sable sentinel, who was posted near the 
 house, saw a party of savages approaching. One of 
 them was more fleet than he, and reaching the house 
 at the same moment, they rushed within doors to- 
 gether. The planter's wife instantly closed the door 
 and the negro and Indian grappled. The former was 
 the stronger of the two, though the latter was the 
 more expert. After a hard struggle, the negro threw 
 the Indian, and held him fast until the woman be- 
 headed him with a broad-axe. The negro then seized 
 the guns, and began to fire at the other Indians 
 through the loop-holes. The guns were loaded by 
 the woman as fast as discharged. Their frequent 
 report soon brought the laborers from the field, and 
 the surviving Indians were driven away. 
 
THE WIFE OF EICHAKD SHUBKICK. 
 
 Be fire with fire ; 
 Threaten the threatener, and out face the brow 
 Of bragging hoiTor : so shall inferior eyes. 
 That borrow their behavior from the great, 
 Grow great by your example. 
 
 Shakspeake. 
 
 The followino^ anecdotes of Mrs. Richard Shnbrick 
 may be found in the First Series of Major Garden's 
 Revolutionary Anecdotes. " There was," he writes, 
 " an apj)earance of personal debility abont her that 
 rendered her peculiarly interesting : it seemed to so- 
 licit the interest of every heart, and the man would 
 have felt himself degraded who would not have put 
 his life at hazard to serve her. Yet, when firmness 
 of character was requisite, when fortitude was called 
 for to repel the encroachments of aggression, there 
 was not a more intrepid being in existence. 
 
 " An American soldier, flying from a party of the 
 enemy, sought her protection, and was promised it. 
 The British, pressing close upon him, insisted that 
 he should be delivered up, threatening immediate 
 and universal destruction in case of refusal. The 
 ladies, her friends and companions, who were in the 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. \-3 
 
 house with her, shrunk from the contest, and wcra 
 silent ; but, undaunted by their threats, this intrepid 
 lady placed herself before the chamber into which 
 the unfortunate fugitive had been conducted, and 
 resolutely said, ' To men of honor the chamber of a 
 lady should be as sacred as the sanctuary! I will 
 defend the passage to it though I perish. You may 
 succeed, and enter it, but it shall be over my corpse.' 
 ' By God,' said the officer, ' if muskets were only 
 placed in the hands of a few such women, our only 
 safety would be found in retreat. Your intrepidity, 
 madam, gives you security ; from me you shall meet 
 no further annoyance.' 
 
 " At Brabant, the seat of the respectable and patri- 
 otic Bishop Smith, a sergeant of Tarleton's dragoons, 
 eager for the aquisition of plunder, followed the over- 
 seer, a man advanced in years, into the apartment 
 where the ladies of the family were assembled, and 
 on his refusing to discover the spot in which the 
 plate was concealed, struck him with violence, in- 
 flicting a severe sabre wound across the shoulders. 
 Aroused by the infamy of the act, Mrs. Shubrick, 
 starting from her seat, and placing herself betwixt 
 the ruffian and his victim, resolutely said, ' Place 
 yourself behind me, Murdoch; the interposition of 
 my body shall give you protection, or I will die : ' 
 then, addressing herself to the sergeant, exclaimed, 
 'O what a degradation of manhood — what departure 
 from that gallantry which was once the characteristic 
 of British soldiers. Human nature is degraded by 
 your barbarity; — but should you persist, then strike 
 
364: NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 at me^ for till I die, no further injury shall be done 
 to liim^ The sergeant, unable to resist such com- 
 manding eloquence, retired."* 
 
 * " The hope, lio-wever, of attaining the object in view, very speedily 
 subjected the unfortunate Murdoch to new persecution. He was tied 
 up under the very tree where the plate was buried, and threatened 
 with immediate execution unless he would make the discovery required. 
 But although well acquainted witii the unrelenting severity of his 
 enemy, and earnestly sohcited by his wife, to save his Hfe by a speedy 
 confession of the place of deposit, he persisted resolutely, that a sacred 
 trust was not to be betrayed, and actually succeeded in preserving it." 
 
KEEN" EETOBT OF MES. ASHE. 
 
 I have a thousand spuits in one breast. 
 To answer twenty thousand such as you. 
 
 Shakspeake, 
 
 "While General Leslie was staying with the British 
 troops at Halifax, l^orth Carolina, Colonel Tarleton 
 and other officers held their quarters at the house 
 of Colonel Ashe, whose wife was a firm friend of 
 liberty. Her beau ideal of the hero was Colonel 
 William Washington; and, knowing this fact, the 
 sarcastic Tarleton took great delight in speaking 
 diminutively of this officer in her presence. In his 
 jesting way, he remarked to her one time, that he 
 should like to have an opportunity of seeing hei 
 friend. Colonel Washington, whom he had understood 
 to be a very small man. Mrs. Ashe promptly replied, 
 " K you had .looked behind you. Colonel Tarleton, 
 a,t the battle of the Cowpens, you would have had 
 that pleasure."* 
 
 * It is said that this taunt was so keenly felt that Tarleton laid his 
 hand on the hilt of his sword. General Leslie entered the room at 
 the moment, and seeing the agitation of Mrs. Ashe, and learning its 
 cause, said to her, " Say what you please, Mrs. Ashe ; Colonel Tarleton 
 knows better than to insult a lady in my presence." 
 
PHILAl^THEOPIC WIFE OF A DEUISTKAKD. 
 
 There's in you all that we believe of heaven. 
 
 Otway. 
 
 " The amazing influence of one Christian, who 
 shows in her life the spirit of Christ, is illustrated in 
 a striking manner, in the life of a lady who died not 
 long since, in one of the principal cities of the 
 United States. I am not permitted to give her name, 
 nor all the particulars of her life. But what I relate 
 may be relied upon, not only as facts, but as far 
 below the whole truth. She had been for a long time 
 afflicted with a drunken husband. At length the 
 sheriff came, and swept off all her property, not 
 excepting her household furniture, to discharge his 
 grog bills. At this distressing crisis, she retired to 
 an upper room, laid her babe upon the bare floor, 
 kneeled down over it, and offered up the following 
 petition : " O Lord, if thou wilt in any way remove 
 from me this affliction, I will serve thee upon tread 
 and water^ all the days of my life." The Lord took 
 her at her word. Her besotted husband immedi- 
 ately disappeared, and was never heard of again 
 till after her death. The church would now have 
 
OF AMERICAN Y.'OMKN. 367 
 
 maintained her, but she would not consent to become 
 a charge to others. Althongli in feeble health, and 
 afflicted with the sick headache, she opened a small 
 school, from which she obtained a bare subsistence ; 
 though it was often no more than what was contained 
 in the condition of her prayer — literally bread and 
 water. She was a lady of pleasing address, and of a 
 mild and gentle disposition. "In her lips was the 
 law of kindness." Yet she possessed an energy of 
 character and a spirit of perseverance, which the 
 power of faith alone can impart. When she imder- 
 took any Christian enterprise, she was discouraged by 
 no obstacles, and appalled by no difficulties. She 
 resided in the most wicked and abandoned part of 
 the city, which aiforded a great field of labor. Her 
 benevolent heart was pained at seeing the grog shops 
 open upon the holy Sabbath. She undertook the 
 difficult and almost hopeless task of closing these 
 sinks of moral pollution upon the Lord's day, and 
 succeeded. This was accomplished by the mild in- 
 fluence of persuasion, flowing from the lips of kind- 
 ness, and clothed with that power which always 
 accompanies the true spirit of the gospel. But she 
 was not satisfied with seeing the front doors and 
 windows of these houses closed. She would, therefore, 
 upon the morning of the Sabbath, pass round, and 
 enter these shops through the dwellings occupied by 
 the families of the keepers, where she often found 
 them engaged secretly in this wickedness. She would 
 then remonstrate with them, until she persuaded 
 them to abandon it, and attend public worship. In 
 
368 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 this manner, she abolisned, almost entirely, the sale 
 of liquors upon the Sabbath, in the worst part of the 
 city. 
 
 "She also looked after the poor, that the Gospel 
 might be preached to them. She carried with her the 
 number of those pews in the church which were 
 •unoccupied. And upon Sabbath mornings, she made 
 it her business to go out in the streets and lanes of 
 the city, and persuade the poor to come in and fill up 
 these vacant seats. By her perseverance and energy, 
 she would remove every objection, until she had 
 brought them to the house of God. She was inces- 
 sant and untiring in every efifort for doing good. She 
 would establish a Sabbath school, and superintend it 
 until she saw it flourishing, and then deliver it into 
 the hands of some suitable person, and go and esta- 
 blish another. She collected together a Bible class of 
 apprentices, which she taught herself. Her pastor 
 one day visited it, and found half of them in tears, 
 under deep conviction. She was faithful to the 
 church and to impenitent sinfiers. It was her habitual 
 practice to reprove sin, and to warn sinners wherever 
 she found them. At the time of her death, she had 
 under her care a number of pious young men pre- 
 paring for the ministry. These she had looked after, 
 and brought out of obscurity. As soon as their piety 
 nad been sufficiently proved, she would bring them 
 \o the notice of her Christian fliends. She persuaded 
 pious teachers to give them gratuitous instruction, 
 ^nd pious booksellers to supply them with books. In 
 the same way, she procured their board in the 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMFJN. 
 
 369 
 
 fjimilieg of wealthy Christians ; and she formed little 
 societies of ladies, to supply them with clothing. 
 There was probably no person in the city whose death 
 would have occasioned the shedding of more tears, 
 or called forth more sincere and heartfelt grief." * 
 
 * Practical Directory for Young Christian Females, 
 
 
 24 
 
THE MOTHEE OF DE. DWIGHT. 
 
 Though renown 
 
 Plant laurels on the -warrior's grave, and wreathe 
 
 "With bays the slumbering bard — the mother's urn 
 
 Shall claim more dear memorials : gratitude 
 
 Shall there abide ; afiFection, reverence, there 
 
 Shall oft revolve the precepts which now speak 
 
 With emphasis divine. 
 
 Mr=5. "West, 
 
 The motlier of Timothy D wight was a daugliter 
 of Jonathan Edwards, and seems to have inherited 
 a large share of her father's talents and spiritual 
 graces. Her powers of mind were unusnally strong; 
 her knowledge was extensive and varied, and her 
 piety highly fervid. She married at an early age; 
 became a mother when eighteen ; had a large family y 
 and, though never negligent of domestic duties, she 
 daily and assiduously devoted herself to the education 
 of her children. She began to instruct Timothy, it 
 is said, *' as soon as he was able to speak ; and such 
 was his eagerness, as well as his capacity for im- 
 provement, that he learned the alphabet at a single 
 lesson; and before he was fom* years old, was able 
 fo read the Bible with ease and correctness. 
 She taught him from the very dawn of his reason 
 to fear God and to keep his commandments; to be 
 
OK AMEItlCAN VVOItlKN. 371 
 
 conscientiously just, kind, affectionate, cliaritaljle, and 
 forgiving; to preserve, on all occasions, and under 
 all circumstances, the most sacred regard for truth; 
 and to relieve the distresses and supply the wants 
 of the poor and unfortunate. She aimed, at a very 
 early period, to enlighten his conscience, to make 
 him afraid of sin, and to teach him to hope for par- 
 don only through Christ. The impressions thus made 
 upon his mind in infancy, were never effaced. A 
 great proportion of the instruction which he received 
 before he arrived at the age of six years, was at 
 home with his mother. His school room was the 
 nursery. Here he had his regular hours for study, 
 as in a school ; and twice every day she heard him 
 repeat his lesson. Here, iu addition to his stated 
 task, he watched the cradle of his younger brother. 
 When his lesson was recited, he w^as permitted to 
 read such books as he chose, until the limited period 
 was expired. During these intervals, he often read 
 over the historical parts of the Bible, and gave an 
 account of them to his mother. So deep and distinct 
 was the impression which these narrations made upon 
 his mind, that thMr minutest incidents were indelibly 
 i".xed upon his memory. His relish for reading was 
 thus early formed, and was strengthened by the con- 
 versation and example of - his mother. His early 
 knowledge of the Bible led to that ready, accurate, 
 and extensive acquaintance with Scripture, which is 
 so evident in his sermons and other writings." * 
 
 * Mothers of the Wise and Good, v. 149, 
 
372 / NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 It is easy to see, in this picture, who it was that 
 laid the foundation of that character which sanctified 
 genius, and caused it to shine with transcendent his- 
 tre, for more than twenty years, at the head of Yale 
 college. The mother of President Dwight was well 
 repaid, even in this life, for the pains she took to 
 rear this son for the glory of God ; for, while he never 
 disobeyed a command of hers or omitted a filial duty, 
 he was kind and generous to her in her old age, and 
 smoothed her path to a Christian's grave. But her 
 true and great reward for her maternal faithfulness, 
 is in another world, whither she went to receive it 
 about the year 1807. 
 
HAPPY EESULTS OF MATERNAL FIDELITY. 
 
 Lift the. heart and bend the knee. 
 
 Mrs. Hemans. 
 
 The superior influence of the mother in forming the 
 character of the child, is generally conceded. Bio- 
 graphical literature abounds with illustrations of this 
 fact, and renders it incontrovertible. As examples, 
 in Great Britain, we are often, with propriety, pointed 
 to the mothers of Isaac and John Newton, Dod- 
 dridge, the "Wesleys, Bichard Cecil, Legh Bichmond 
 and many others ; but it is needless for any people 
 to search in foreign lands for such examples. 
 
 In the notices of the mothers of Washington, Jack- 
 son, Bandolph, Dwight and some others, on preceding 
 pages of this volume, the truth of the same pro- 
 position is endeavored to be substantiated : and, as 
 facts most forcibly illustrate argument, and wholesome 
 hints are often easiest given by example, we will add 
 two or three more anecdotes having a bearing on this 
 point. 
 
 The mother of Jonathan Edwards,' it is well known, 
 began to pray for him as soon as he was born ; and 
 probably no mother ever strove harder than she to 
 
374 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 v^iw a child " in the nurture and a'Smonition of the 
 Loi-d." The result of her efforts is known to the 
 world. 
 
 The late Professor Ejiowles, of the l!^ewton theo- 
 logical institution, received much pious instruction 
 from his mother in his infant years ; and, as he lost 
 his father at the age of twelve, at that period she 
 assumed wholly the guidance of his steps and his 
 studies. She early discovered his love of books and 
 his promising talents ; and while she admonished him, 
 and led him to the Saviour, she also sympathized 
 with him in his literary taste and encouraged him in 
 his scientific pursuits. The zealous minister, the 
 learned biblical instructor, the polished writer and 
 biographer of the first Mrs. Judson, owed very much 
 to the moral training and the literary encouragement 
 of his faithful mother. 
 
 Nearl}^ half a century ago, the mother of the cele- 
 brated Beecher family, made the following record : 
 "This morning I rose very early to pray for my 
 children ; and especially that my sons may be minis- 
 ters and missionaries of Jesus Christ." The "fervent" 
 prayers of the good woman were "effectual:" her five 
 sons became "ministers and missionaries of Jesus 
 Christ," and all her children — eight in number— are 
 connected with the " household of God " — several on 
 earth and one,* at least, in heaven.. 
 
 * The late George Beecher. 
 
WONDEEFUL EKPUEANCE AND PERSE- 
 YERAJS'CE OF MRS. SCOTT. 
 
 Mute 
 
 The camel labors with the heaviest load. 
 And the wolf dies in silence ; not beetowed 
 In vain should such examples b? ; if they, 
 Things of ignoble or of savage mood. 
 Endure and shrink not, we of n ^bler clay. 
 May temper it to bear — it is but for a day. 
 
 Byron. 
 
 Mrs. Scott, a resident of Washington county, Vir- 
 ginia, was taken captive by Indians on the night 
 of the twenty-ninth of June, 1Y85. Her husband 
 and all her children were slain ; and before morning 
 she was forced to commence her march through the 
 wilderness. 
 
 On the eleventh day of her captivity, while in 
 charge of four Indians, provision becoming scarce, 
 a halt was made, and three of the number went on 
 a hunting excursion. Being left in the care of an 
 oil man, she made him believe she was reconciled 
 tc her condition, and thus threw him off his guard, 
 j^nxious to escape, and having matured her plans, 
 s^ie asked him, in the most disinterested manner 
 p^ossible, to Jet her go to a small stream, near by, 
 
376 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 and wash hei apron, which was besmeared with the 
 blood of one of her children. He gave her leave, 
 and while he was busy in " graining a deer-skin," 
 she started off. Arriving at the stream, without a 
 moment's hesitation, she pushed on in the direction 
 of a mountain. Traveling till late at night, she came 
 into a valley where she hoped to find the track along 
 which she had been taken by her captors, and thereby 
 be able to retrace her steps. Hurrying across the 
 valley to the margin of a river, which she supposed 
 must be the eastern branch of the Kentucky, she 
 discovered in the sand the tracks of two men who 
 had followed the stream upwards and returned. 
 Thinking them to be the prints of pursuers, and that 
 they had returned from the search, she took courage, 
 thanked God, and was prepared to continue her 
 flight. 
 
 On the third day she came very near falling into 
 the hands of savages, a company whom f:he supposed 
 had been sent to Clinch river on a pilferirig excursion. 
 Hearing their approach before they car/re in sight, 
 she concealed herself, and they passed without no- 
 ticing her. She now became greatly alarmed, and 
 was so bewildered as to lose her way and to wander 
 at random for several days. 
 
 At length, coming to a stream that seemed to flow 
 from the east, she concluded it must be Sandy river; 
 and res-. Iving to trace it to its source, ^vhich was near 
 a settlement where she was acquainted, she pushed 
 on for several days, till she came into mountainous 
 regions and to craggy steeps. There, in the vicinity 
 
OF AMKKTOAN WOlsrEN. »J i I 
 
 of a " prodigious waterfall," she was forced to leap 
 from a precipice, upon some rocks, and was so stun- 
 ned as to be obliged to make a short delay in lier 
 journey. 
 
 Soon after passing through the mountain,* she was 
 bitten by a snake which she supposed was venomous. 
 She killed it, and expected her turn to die would 
 come next; but the only injury she received was 
 some pain and the slight swelling of one foot. A 
 writer, whose narration we follow and whose facts 
 are more reliable than his philosophy, thinks that, 
 being " reduced to a mere skeleton, with fatigue, hun- 
 ger and grief," she was probably, on that account, 
 " saved from the effects of the poisonous fangs." 
 
 Leaving the river, Mrs. Scott came to a forked 
 valley^ and watching the flight of birds, took the 
 branch they did, and in two days came in sight of 
 JSTew Garden, the settlement on Clinch river, before 
 referred to. Thus, after wandering in the wilderness 
 for six long weeks, almost destitute of clothing, with- 
 out a weapon of defence or instrument for obtaining 
 provision ; exposed to wild beasts and merciless sav- 
 ages ; subsisting a full month on the juice of young 
 cane stalks, sassafras leaves and similar food; look- 
 ing to God in prayer for guidance by day, and for 
 protection by night ; shielded from serious harm, and 
 led by an unseen Hand, on the eleventh of August, 
 the wanderings of the widowed and childless captive 
 were brought to a close. 
 
 * Laurel mountain. 
 
SUCCESS OF BOLDIS^ESS. 
 
 " Courage, prove tliy chance once more." 
 
 While Colonel Tarleton was marcliing through 
 Korth Carolina, near the close of the Hevolution, he 
 passed two nights in Halifax connty. From malice 
 or because of a scarcity of provision, he caused his 
 troops to catch all the horses, cattle, hogs, fowls, etc., 
 that could be found, most of which were destroyed. 
 The inhabitants generally fled and concealed them- 
 selves in the neighboring swamps and thickets. One 
 young lady, however, in the upper part of the county, 
 where they spent the second night, refused to retire. 
 Remaining on the premises alone, when the marau- 
 ders came for the horses and cattle thereon. Miss 
 Bishop"" ordered them off; but they did not obey^ 
 Among the animals they drove to camp, was a favo- 
 rite pony of hers, which she resolved to recover. 
 When night come on, she went unarmed to the camp, 
 about a mile distant, and boldly made known her 
 errand to Tarleton. "Your roguish men in red coats," 
 she said to him, "came to my father's house about sun- 
 down and stole my pony, and I have walked here 
 
 * Afterwards Mrs. Po-well. She died in 1840. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. S70 
 
 alone and unprotected, to claim and demand him ; 
 and, sir, I must and I will have him. I fear not vour 
 men. They are base and unprincipled enough to 
 dare to offer insult to an unprotected female ; but 
 their cowardly hearts will prevent them from doing 
 lier any bodily injury." While thus speaking, her eye 
 happened to fall on her favorite animal, upon which 
 the camp fire flung its light, and she added, " There, 
 sir, is my horse. I shall mount him and ride peace- 
 fully home ; and if you have any gentlemanly feeling 
 within you, of which your men are totally destitute, 
 or, if yoQ have any regard for their safety, you will 
 see, sir, that I am not interrupted. But, before I go, 
 I wish to say to you that he who can, and will not, 
 prevent this base and cowardly stealing from hen- 
 roosts, stables and barn-yards, is no better, in my 
 estimation, than the mean, good-for-nothing, guilty 
 wretches ' who do the dirty work with their own 
 hands ! Good night, sir." 
 
 Tarleton took the hint ; ordered his soldiers not to 
 molest her ; and she was suffered to take the pony 
 and gallop peacefully home. 
 
MAEY KITiaHT. 
 
 -The office 
 
 Becomes a woman best; I'll take it upon me. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 The subject of this brief notice was a sister of Gen- 
 eral Isaac Worrell. She died two or three years 
 since, in Philadelphia. The following tribute to her 
 patriotism and humanity, was paid by a 'New Jersey 
 newspaper, in July, 1849 : 
 
 " The deceased was one of those devoted women 
 who aided to relieve the horrible sufferings of Wash- 
 ington's army at Yalley Forge — cooking and carrying 
 provisions to them alone, through the depth of winter, 
 even passing through the outposts of the British army 
 in the disguise of a market woman. And when 
 Washington was compelled to retreat before a supe- 
 rior force, she concealed her brother, G-eneral Worrell, 
 — when the British set a price on his head — in a 
 cider hogshead in the cellar for three days, and fed 
 him through the bunghole ; the house being ransacked 
 four different times by the troops in search of him, 
 without success. She was over ninety years of age 
 at the time of her death." 
 
THE WIFE OF WILLIAM GEAY. 
 
 Our lives 
 
 In acts exemplary, not only win 
 
 Oui'selves good names, but do to others give ^ 
 
 Matter for virtuous deeds, by which we live. 
 
 Chapmak. 
 
 Elizabeth Chipman was born in Essex county, 
 Massaclnisetts, in May, 1756. She was the daughter 
 of a talented and eminent lawyer of Marblehead, and 
 inherited a highly respectable share of his mental 
 endowments. Her intellectual faculties and moral 
 feelings were early and highly develo]3ed ; and when, 
 in 1782, she was married to William Gray, the cele-' 
 brated millionaire, of Salem, in her native county, 
 she was prepared, in all respects, to command the 
 highest influence in society. But, although the wife 
 of the richest man in Massachusetts and , probably in 
 New England, she never rose above her duties as a 
 housekeeper, a mother and a Christian. She managed 
 her domestic affairs personally and economically ; 
 and inculcated in the minds of her six children, by 
 example as well as precept, the best habits and the 
 noblest principles. " She divided her time between 
 reading, household affairs, and duties to society, in 
 
NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 such a manner as never for a moment to be in a 
 hurry." * She was as well known by the poor as the 
 rich: her virtues irradiated every sphere. She was 
 anxious to exalt as much as possible the Christian 
 profession ; hence she rode in a plain carriage, and 
 avoided all unnecessary display, " that no^ evil prece- 
 dents of expense could arise from her example." 
 
 The latter years of this excellent woman were 
 passed in Boston, whither the family had removed, 
 and where she died on the twenty-fourth of Septem- 
 ber, 1823. In her benevolent acts and cheerful life, 
 is beautifully exemplified the truth of the poet's 
 assertion : 
 
 On piety humanity is built, 
 
 And on humanity, much happiness. 
 
 Knapp's Female Biography, p. 235. 
 
ANECDOTE OF MES. HUNTIlvrGTOlSr. 
 
 Earthly power doth then show likest gods. 
 When mercy seasons justice. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Susan Mansfield was the daughter of the Rev 
 Achilles Mansfield, of Killingworth, Connecticut, and 
 was born on the twenty-seventh of January, 1791. 
 At the age of eighteen or nineteen, she was married 
 to Joshua Huntington, pastor of the Old South 
 church, Boston. She died in 1823. Her menioirs, 
 written by her husband's pastoral successor, B. B. 
 Wisner, was, at one time, a very popular work. It 
 passed through five editions in Scotland, in a very 
 few years. 
 
 Her husband preceded her to the grave four years. 
 While a widow, she was robbed of several articles 
 of jewelry by a young woman ; and the articles were 
 recovered, and the thief arrested and tried. During 
 the examination, Mrs. Huntington was called into 
 court to identify the property ; and having done this, 
 she was asked their value. Knowing that the degree 
 of punishment depended somewhat on the apprisal of 
 the property, and pitying the poor girl, she hinted that 
 
884 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 she never used much jewelry, and was not a good 
 judge of its value. A person was then called upon to 
 prize the several articles ; and she told him to bear 
 in mind that they had been used for many years, 
 were consequently damaged, and out of fashion. In 
 this way she secured a low and, to herself, a satisfac- 
 tory valuation. She then addressed the judge, stating 
 that she had herself taken the jewelry from a trunk : 
 had carelessly left it exposed on a table ; had thus 
 thrown temptation in the way of the girl, and sug- 
 gested that her own heedlessness might possibly 
 have been the cause of the offence. She did not, she 
 assured the judge, wish to interfere with his duties, 
 or wrongly bias his decisions, but she would, never- 
 theless, esteem it a favor, if the punishment inflicted 
 on the unfortunate transgressor, could be the lightest 
 that would not dishonor the law\ Hoping the igno- 
 rant girl would repent and reform, she left the stand 
 with tears in her eyes, which greatl}^ affected the 
 judge. In his sentence he reminded the culprit, that 
 the person whom she had most offended, was the 
 first to plead for a mitigation of her punishment, 
 and had saved her from the extreme rigors of a 
 broken law. 
 
HOSPITALITY OF MES. BIDDLE. 
 
 All were -welcome and feasted. 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 In the summer of 1777, while Washington was 
 encamped near Brandywine, a large party of foragers 
 came into the neighborhood, and the General gave 
 orders to a company of his troops, to go in pur- 
 suit of them early the next morning, and, if pos- 
 sible, cut off their retreat. As an engagement might 
 ensue, he also gave orders that the women should 
 leave the camp. Receiving intelligence of the latter 
 order, and unwilling to be included in it, the wife 
 of Colonel Clement Biddle, an intimate associate of 
 Mrs. Washington in the camp, went to the General 
 and told him that the officers, who had gone on the 
 expedition, would be likely to return hungry, and she 
 would consider it a favor to be allowed to remain 
 and prepare some refreshment for them. Washington 
 complied with her request, and her servant was im - 
 mediately posted off in search of provision. 
 
 Receiving information that a band of " rebels " 
 
 was in pursuit of them, the foragers took a quick 
 
 step out of the neighborhood. The pursuers returned 
 
 25 
 
386 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 at a late dinner hour exceedingly fatigued and ripe 
 for attacking the " good things " prepared by Mrs. 
 Biddle. !N'otified of her generosity, the officers forSi- 
 with repaired to her quarters, each saying, on his 
 entrance, " Madam, we hear that you, feed the army 
 to-day." It is said that at least a hundred officers 
 enjojed her hospitalities on that occasion. 
 
 They ate like Famine, fast and well. 
 Piling their plates with turkeys slain ; 
 
 They conquered — bones alone could tell 
 Of fowls late bled at every vein. 
 
KLNDJSTESS OF SOME CONYIOTS 
 
 When your head did but ache, 
 
 I knit my handkerchief about your brows. 
 
 And with my hand at midnight held your head ; 
 And, like the watchful minutes to the hour. 
 Still and anon cheered up the heavy time. 
 
 Shakspeabe. 
 
 When the yellow fever broke out in Philadelphia, 
 several years ago, it was extremely difficult to obtain 
 iielp at the hospital; application was consequently 
 made to the female convicts in the prison. Braving 
 the danger of becoming nurses for the sick under 
 such circumstances, as many as were needed readily 
 profered their aid, and remained as long as desired. 
 There was a scarcity of bedsteads, and these females 
 were asked for theirs. Willing to sacrifice the mea- 
 gre comforts of a convict for the sake of alleviating 
 the condition of the sick and the dying, they not 
 only gave up their bedsteads, but bedding also. Such 
 humane conduct, coming from whom it may, is de- 
 serving of praise and worthy of record. 
 
MAKGAEET PKIOR. 
 
 If a soul thou "wouldst redeem. 
 
 And lead a lost one back to God; 
 Wouldst thou a guardian angel seem 
 
 To one "who long in guilt hath trod ; 
 Go kindly to him — take his hand. 
 
 With gentlest words, within thine own. 
 And by his side a brother stand, 
 
 Till all the demon thou dethrone. 
 
 Mrs. C. M. Sawyee. 
 
 The subject of this notice was a native of Fre- 
 dericksbnrgh, Yirginia. She was born in 1TY3. Her 
 maiden name was Barrett. She was married to Wil- 
 liam Allen, a merchant of Baltimore, at the age of 
 sixteen; resided in that city for several years, and 
 became the mother of seven children. All but one 
 of them died in infancy. Her husband was lost at 
 sea, in 1808, when her only surviving child was 
 about eighteen months old. 
 
 Soon after becoming a widow she removed to the 
 city of New York. There, in 1814, she was united 
 in marriage with William Prior, a benevolent and 
 public-spirited member of the Society of Friends. 
 She was herself at that time in communion with 
 the Baptists, she having united with them before 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 389 
 
 the death of her first husband. In 1819 she joined 
 the Methodists, with wiiom she remained in church- 
 fellowship the residue of her life. 
 
 When the New York Orphan Asylum was insti- 
 tuted, she was appointed one of the managers and 
 was, thenceforward, incessantly engaged in bene- 
 volent operations. We first find her in the more 
 conspicuous "walks of usefulness," in the severe win- 
 ter of 1818 and '19. There being, at that time, no 
 public fund for meeting the wants of the poor, she 
 made arrangements with her nearest neighbor — her- 
 self a kind-hearted, humane woman — to prepare soup 
 three times a week for the destitute in the ninth 
 ward. She had previously visited that part of the 
 city and made herself acquainted with many suf- 
 fering individuals. All w^ho applied for soup, if not 
 known, she accompanied to their homes, and pre- 
 sented them with tickets entitling them to further 
 supplies, if found to be true objects of charity. 
 Many, it is thought, were saved from starvation by 
 her humane exertions. " These, and similar deeds 
 of mercy, tended to enlarge her heart: while she 
 watered others, she was watered also herself, and 
 felt continually the truth of the assertion, ' It is more 
 blessed to give than to receive.' " * 
 
 Notwithstanding her arduous, public duties, Mrs. 
 Prior managed her household affairs with care, neat 
 ness and regularity. It has been appropiately said 
 of her that she had " a place for every thing and 
 
 * Walks of UsHfnlneas ; or, Reniiniscences of JIargaret Prior, p. 17. 
 
390 NOBLE DTn^:T>S 
 
 every thing in its place." The time that some spend 
 in fashionable and heartless calls, she devoted to in- 
 dnstry and humanity. By rising early, working 
 late, observing the strictest rules of economy, and 
 subjecting herself, at times, to self-denial, she was 
 able to visit the s^uifering, and to make daily ap 
 propriations from her own table for their relief. 
 
 l^umerous instances of her self-denial have beer 
 related, and one of them we will repeat. She usuaFij 
 obtained assistance to do her washing, and limited 
 herself to a dollar a week to meet that expense. 
 Sometimes the amount she wished to devote to some 
 particular object fell short, and in such instances she 
 would do the washing herself, and thereby save the 
 dollar. She felt, in such cases, as has been remarked, 
 that " the personal effort was made a blessing to 
 herself of greater value than the sum saved." 
 
 In the year 1822, Mrs. Prior visited the families 
 on Bowery hill, where she had resided the three 
 previous years; thoroughly acquainted herself with 
 their moral condition and necessities; established a 
 school for poor children; commenced her long-con- 
 tinued weekly visits for conversation and prayer with 
 the pupils, and secured the sympathies and pecuniary 
 assistance of several Christians to aid in supporting 
 the school from year to year. She herself contributed 
 one hundred dollars annually for its maintenance. 
 
 On the fourteenth of September, 1829, this good 
 woman again became a widow. Previous to this 
 date she had lost her seventh child, and an adopted 
 one. She had also taken a second motherless child 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 391 
 
 into her family. About the year her second husband 
 died, Bowery hill was dug awaj, and she changed 
 her residence. 
 
 When, in the early part of 1833, the Moral Ee- 
 form society was organized, she became a prominent 
 member of its board of managers, and, four years 
 afterwards, commenced, under its patronage, her 
 memorable labors as a city missionary. These she 
 continued till 1842, in which year, on the seventh of 
 April, her earthly work was finished. 
 
 Two or three incidents connected with her labors as 
 a missionary, will show, in part, at least, the character 
 of her work and the philanthropic spirit by which 
 she was ever actuated. 
 
 As she was once passing through the streets, she 
 was accosted by a lady who inquired her name, and 
 wished to know if she did not belong to the society 
 which had opened a register of direction for the 
 accommodation of respectable females. Ascertaining 
 that she was not mistaken in the person, the stranger 
 told Mrs. Prior that two female acquaintances of hers 
 were out of work, had become reduced to want, and 
 were so wretched as to threaten to drown themselves, 
 unless they soon, found a situation. They had been 
 working for houses connected with the southern trad 3 
 which had failed, and thus thrown them out o ' 
 employment. Learning their residence, Mrs. PrioT 
 visited them immediately ; told them of the enormity 
 of the crime they had threatened to commit ; thai 
 she would try to secure work for them, and that il 
 was their duty to seek the grace of God to sustain 
 
392 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 them in such trying seasons. The next day she found 
 situations for them in pious families, and thus, while 
 she probably saved them from committing suicide, 
 she was, perhaps, the instrument, in the hands of 
 God, of saving them from infamy and eternal ruin. 
 
 Passing through the suburbs of the city one day, 
 her attention was arrested by the chime of youthful 
 voices. Seeing that the music proceeded from some 
 little beggar-girls, who were sitting in the sun beside 
 the fence and singing a Sabbath school hymn, she 
 inquired of them what they were doing, when the 
 following dialogue occurred : " We were cold, ma'am, 
 and are getting warm in the sun." " Where do you 
 live ? " " In Twentieth street, ma'am." " Why have 
 you come so far away from your homes ? " "To get 
 some food and some things to make a fire." '' Why 
 were you singing ? " " To praise God : we go to the 
 Sunday school, and our teacher says if we are good 
 children God will never let us want." Pleased with 
 the modest and artless answers to her questions, the 
 good woman took them across the street, procured 
 each of them a loaf of bread, gave them some pious 
 counsel, and left them with smiles on their faces and 
 gratitude in their hearts. 
 
 Mrs. Prior frequently visited the city prison, and 
 on occasion * went to Sing Sing. She made a recoi'd 
 of her visit to the latter place, from which we make 
 an extract : " In visiting the female convicts at their 
 
 •June, 1840. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 393 
 
 cells on Sabbath morning, after Sabbath school, which, 
 under the customary regulations, we were permitted 
 to do, we found nearly all employed in reading their 
 Bibles. We conversed with them respecting the 
 welfare of their souls, and as we knelt with them at 
 the throne of grace, they on one side of the grated 
 door and we on the other, we felt that He whey 
 healed a Mary Magdalene, is still the same compas 
 sionate Saviour, and our faith, we trust, apprehended 
 him as the atoning sacrifice, who bore our sins in his 
 own body on the tree, and opened a way for the sal- 
 vation of even the chief of sinners." 
 
 Being on an errand of mercy in G street 
 
 one day, she stepped into a house of infamy to leave 
 a certain tract. As soon as she had entered and 
 made known her mission, the door was closed and 
 locked by one of the female inmates, who told her 
 that she was their prisoner. " For a moment," writes 
 Mrs. Prior, in her journal, "my heart was tremulous; 
 I said nothing till the risings of fear were quelled, 
 and then replied pleasantly, ' "Well, if I'm a prisoner, 
 I shall pray here, and would sing praises to God if 1 
 were not so hoarse. Yes, bless the Lord ! his pres- 
 ence can make me happy here or any where, and you 
 can* have no power to harm me unless he gives it. 
 This is a dreadful place, to be sure, but it is not so 
 bad as hell ; for there, there is no hope. The smoke 
 of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever ! 
 What a mercy that we are not all there ! what com- 
 passion in the blessed Jesus that he spares us, when 
 our sins are every day so great.' I talked to them in 
 
394: NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 this manner till they were glad to open the door as a 
 signal for my release." 
 
 Such were the doings, such was the character, of 
 Margaret Prior. "We see her organizing week-day 
 and Sabbath schools, industrial associations and 
 temperance societies ; establishing soup houses and 
 orphan asylums ; visiting the sick, the poor, the 
 idle, the culprit, the outcast ; pointing the dying to 
 a risen Saviour, leading the destitute by the hand 
 to the place of relief, the idle to houses of indus- 
 try, and warning the outlaw and the corrupt of the 
 certain and terrible doom that would attend persis- 
 tency in their downward course. With the sweetness, 
 gentleness, simplicity, and delicacy, so becoming in 
 woman under all circumstances, were blended in her 
 character, energy that was unconquerable, courage 
 that danger could not blench, and firmness that 
 human power could not bend. The contemplation of 
 such a character is superficial, if it does not prompt 
 benevolent feelings, re-affirm virtuous resolutions, and 
 revive and strengthen drooping piety. 
 
 m 
 
NOBLE ACTS OF KIITDI^ESS. 
 
 We are to relieve the distressed, to put the wanderer in the vraj, 
 and divide our bread with the hungry. — Seneca. 
 
 The Kev. Thomas Andros, of Berkley, Massachu- 
 setts, was a firm patriot and a keen sufferer in the 
 strife for freedom. He was captured whilst on board 
 a privateer, and transferred to the Jersey prison ship. 
 In the autumn of 1781, he escaped ; and, skulking 
 through the east end of Long Island, received at 
 the hands of females such marks of pitv and kind- 
 ness as were thought worthy of noting in his journal. 
 The following are extracts : 
 
 "I came to a respectable dwelling-house and en- 
 tered it. Among the inmates were a decent woman 
 and a tailor. To the woman I expressed my ^\ant 
 of something to nourish my feeble frame, telling her 
 if she would give me a morsel, it would be a mere 
 act of charity. She made no objecti^, asked no 
 questions, but promptly furnished me with the dish 
 of light food I desired. Expressing my obligations 
 to her, I rose to depart. But going round through 
 another room, she met me in the front entry, placed 
 a hat on my head, put an apple pie in my hand, and 
 
896 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 said, ' you will want this before you get through the 
 woods.' I opened my mouth to give vent to the 
 grateful feelings with which my heart was filled. 
 But she would not tarry to hear a word, and instantly 
 vanished. The mystery of her conduct I suppose 
 was this : she was satisfied that I had escaped from 
 prison, and if she granted me any succor, knowing 
 me to be such, it might cost her family the confisca- 
 tion of their estate. She did not therefore wish to 
 ask me any questions or hear me explain who I was 
 in the hearing of the tailor, who might turn informer. 
 This mark of kindness was more than I could well 
 bear, and as I went on the tears flowed copiously ! 
 The recollection of her humanity and pity revives 
 in my breast even now the same feeling of gratitude. 
 
 " Some time after, in Suffolk county, being repulsed 
 from one dwelling, I entered another, and informed 
 the mistress of the house of my wants. By the 
 cheerfulness and good-nature depicted in her coun- 
 tenance and first movements, I knew my suit was 
 granted, and I had nothing more to say than to 
 apprise her I was penniless. In a few moments she 
 placed on the table a bowl of bread and milk, a dried 
 bluefish roasted, and a mug of cider, and said, ' sit 
 down and eat.' 
 
 " It was now growing dark, so I went but a short 
 distance further, entered a house, and begged the 
 privilege of lodging by the fire. My request was 
 granted. There was no one in the house but the 
 man and his wife. They appeared to be cordial 
 friends to ea(»h other — it was indeed one of the few 
 
happy matches. Before it became late in the eve- 
 ning the man took his Bible and read a chaptei*. lie 
 then arose and offered up his grateful acknowledg- 
 ments and supplications to God through the Mediator. 
 I now began to think I had got into a safe and 
 hospitable retreat. They had before made many 
 inquiries such as indicated that they felt tenderly and 
 took an interest in my welfare. I now confessed my 
 situation to them. All was silence. It took some 
 time to recover themselves from a flood of tears. 
 At last the kind woman said, 'Let us go and bake 
 his clothes.' 'No sooner said than the man seized a 
 brand of fire and threw it into the oven. The 
 woman provided a clean suit of clothes to supply the 
 place of mine till they had purified them by fire. 
 The work done, a clean bed was laid down on which 
 I was to rest, and rest I did as in a new world ; for 
 I had got rid of a swarm of cannibals who were 
 eating me up alive ! In the morning I took my 
 leave of this dear family with a gratitude that for 
 fifty years has suffered no abatement." '-^ 
 
 * Mr, Andros thus describes the old Jersey : " Her dark and filthy 
 exterior corresponded with the death and despair reigning within. It 
 is supposed that eleven thousand American seamen perished in her. 
 None came to relieve their woes. Once or twice, by order of a stranger 
 on the quarter-deck, a bag of apples was hurled promiscuously into the 
 midst of hundreds of prisoners, crowded as thick as they could stand 
 — and life and limbs were endangered in the struggle. The prisoners 
 were secured between the decks by iron gi-atings ; and when the sliip 
 was to be cleared of water, an armed guard foj-ced them up to the 
 winches, amid a roar of execrations and reproaches — the dim light 
 adding to the hoiTors of the scene. Thousands died whose names have 
 never been known ; perishing when no eye could witness their forti- 
 tude, nor praise their devotion to their coimtiy.'* 
 
THE WIFE OF DE. EAMSAT. 
 
 TJmivalled as thy merit, be thy fame. 
 
 TiCKELL. 
 
 Few women of modern times liave more charm- 
 ingly exhibited " the beauties of holiness " than Mar- 
 tha Lanrens Eamsaj, the wife of the historian of 
 South Carolina. In his interesting series of lectures 
 on the Christian graces, the Eev. Dr. Williams very 
 happily refers to her habit of prayer, to illustrate the 
 spirit of brotherly kindness as shown in the mutual 
 intercession of brethren in the same church. "It is 
 animating," he writes, " and yet, as contrasted with 
 our present remissness, humiliating, to read how Bax- 
 ter and his people held days of fasting and prayer 
 for each other ; or to turn to the pages which describe 
 a Christian matron of the South, the wife of Ramsay 
 and the daughter of Henry Laurens, President of the 
 Continental Congress, praying over a list of her fel- 
 low-members, name by name, and remembering, to 
 the best of her knowledge, the cares and wants of 
 each before the throne of grace.* 
 
 • Religious Progress, pp. 200-1. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 390 
 
 Prior to her marriage, and whilst residing in France 
 with her father, she received from him the handsome 
 present of ^ve hundred guineas. Appropriating a 
 very small portion of this sum to her own use, with 
 the bulk she purchased one hundred French Testa- 
 ments — all to be foimd in the market — and distri- 
 buted them amongst the destitute in Yigan and its 
 vicinity, and organized a school there for the instruc- 
 tion of youth, constituting a fund sufficient to oblite 
 rate its annual charges. 
 
 Mrs. Ramsay was remarkably economical of time, 
 rising early and devoting every hour to some useful 
 service; and of money, never indulging herself in 
 any needless expenditure. This principle of economy 
 was observed even at her funeral. She directed that 
 it should be at her own private house ; and that her 
 coffin should be plain and without a plate. She died 
 on the tenth of June, 1811. 
 
COUKAGE AND PEESE]S"CE OF MIND OF 
 MAEGARET SCHUYLER. 
 
 — Courage mountetli "with occasion. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 'In August, 1Y81, when tlie abduction of General 
 Schuyler from his house in the suburbs of Albany, 
 was projected, and John TValtermever, the bold par- 
 tizan of Joseph Bettys, led a motley and blood-thirsty 
 band — tories, Canadians and Indians — in the daring 
 undertaking, a daughter of the General acted so 
 courageous and wise a part as to justify us in giving 
 on outline sketch of the unsuccessful enterprise. 
 
 As the family sat in an open door, in the evening 
 of a very sultry day, receiving information that a 
 stranger was waiting at the back gate to see him. 
 General Schuyler mistrusted, at once, that something 
 was wrong; and, instead of repairing to the gate, 
 he instantly closed and fastened the doors, and ran 
 to his bed chamber for his arms. He then hurried 
 his family into the third story, where he immediately 
 discharged a pistol to arouse the careless guards, 
 and afterwards others, to alarm, if possible, the in- 
 habitants of the city. In hurrying up stairs, his wife 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 401 
 
 overlooked her infant, whicli was asleep in the cradle ; 
 and she was about to descend, when the General 
 warned her of the danger, and held her back. See- 
 ing her mother's agony, a daughter named Margaret, 
 rushed down stairs into the nm-serj, caught the 
 child, and was about ascending, when a tomahawk 
 flew past her, simply grazing her dress and slightly 
 injuring it. Hurrying up a private stairway, she 
 was met by TValtermeyer, who roughly exclaimed, 
 "Wench ! where is your master?" With remarkable 
 presence of mind, she answered, " Gone to alarm the 
 town." Fearing that such might be the case, Walter- 
 meyer called his pilfering men, who were bagging 
 plate in the dining hall, and began a consultation. 
 Meanwhile the General was also thinldiig, and devi- 
 sing a stratagem by which to frighten away the 
 kidnappers. He soon threw up a window, and, in 
 the voice of an experienced commander, cried out, 
 " Come on, my brave fellows ; surround the house 
 and secure the villains who are plundering." As he 
 anticipated, the gang, hearing these words, snapped 
 the thread of their consultation, and tested the nim- 
 bleness of their feet. The reports of the General's 
 arms had alarmed the people of the city, and they 
 came to the rescue just in season to be unneeded. 
 
 23 
 
I!^0BLE TEEATMEIS^T OF EIsTEMIES. 
 
 True reliffion 
 
 Is always mild, propitious and humble, 
 Plays not the tyrant, plants no faith in blood ; 
 ISTor bears destniction on her chariot wheels ; 
 Buts stoops to polish, succor, and redress. 
 And builds her grandeur on the public good. 
 
 Miller's Mahomet. 
 
 Among the early converts to Christianitj in the 
 Cherokee tribe, were a few women, who formed them- 
 selves into a society for propagating the Gospel. 
 They felt its expanding power, and, though poor, 
 were anxious to do something for those who were not 
 sharing in the same blessing. The proceeds of their 
 first year's efforts, were about ten dollars ; and while 
 deliberating on the manner of its . appropriatioTx, one 
 of the members suggested that it' be devoted to the 
 promotion of religion among the Osages, giving as 
 a reason that they were the greatest enemies of 
 the Cherokees, and that the Bible teaches Christians 
 to do good to such. 
 
HUMANITY EEWARDED. 
 
 1 should some kindness show ihem. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Among the early settlements of ISTew Hampshire, 
 were several on the Piscataqua river, in the neighbor- 
 hood of the present town of Dover. For awhile the 
 aborigines and whites were on amicable terms, and 
 the former not unfrequentlj paid the latter a friendly 
 visit. On one of those occasions, a pappoos was 
 suddenly seized with illness, and its mother was 
 obliged to remain several days. She found shelter 
 and accommodations with a widow, who received her 
 cordially, and nursed the feeble infant as her own. 
 Such kindness would not be forgotten, even by 
 savages ; and when, after the lapse of years, the bow 
 was bent and the hatchet raised against the settle- 
 ment where the widow resided, the Indians placed a 
 strong guard aroimd her house ; and, though the 
 butchery was terrible, she and her family were un- 
 harmed. 
 
MAKGAEET WHSTTHEOP. 
 
 When meet now- 
 Such pairs, in love and honor joined ? 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Governor Winthrop, the father of the Massachu- 
 setts' colony, married Margaret, the daughter of Su' 
 John Tindal, in April, 1618. She was his third wife, 
 and a woman of rare qualities both of mind and 
 heart. Previous to their emigration to New England, 
 it was not an uncommon occurrence for them to be 
 separated, and their correspondence on such occasions 
 savors of the purest affection. Who does not see 
 the image of a devoted wife and an exalted spirit in 
 the following letter, written about the year 1627 : 
 
 " My most sweet Husband, — How dearly welcome 
 thy kind letter was to me, I am not able to express. 
 The sweetness of it did much refresh me. What can 
 be more pleasing to a wife, than to hear of the wel- 
 fare of her best beloved, and how he is pleased with 
 her poor endeavors ! I blush to hear myself com- 
 mended, knowing my ov/n wants. But it is your love 
 that conceives the best, and makes all things seem 
 better than they are. I wish that I may be always 
 pleasing to thee, and that those comforts we have in 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 405 
 
 each other may be daily increased, as far as they 
 may be pleasing to God. I will use that speech to 
 thee, that Abigail did to David : ' I will be a servant 
 to wash the feet of my lord.' I will do any service 
 wherein I may please my good husband. I confess 
 I cannot do enough for thee ; but thou art pleased to 
 accept the will for the deed, and rest contented. 
 
 " I have many reasons to make me love thee, 
 whereof I will name two : first, because thou lovest 
 God ; and secondly, because thou lovest me. If 
 these two were wanting, all the rest would be 
 eclipsed. But I must leave this discourse, and go 
 about my household affairs. I am a bad housewife 
 to be so long from them ; but I must needs borrow a 
 little time to talk with thee, my sweet heart. I hope 
 thy business draws to an end. It will be but two or 
 three weeks before I see thee, though they be long 
 ones. God will bring us together in his good time ; 
 for which I shall pray. 
 
 Farewell, my good husband ; the Lord keep thee. 
 Your obedient wife, 
 
 Maegahet Winthkop." 
 Below is another letter fpom the pen of this good 
 woman, written after her husband had decided to 
 come to Massachusetts, and just before his embarka- 
 tion : 
 
 " My most dear HrsBAND, — ^I should not now 
 omit any opportunity of writing to thee, considering I 
 shall not long have thee to write unto. But, by reason 
 of my unfitness at this time, I must entreat thee to 
 accept of a few lines from me, and not impute it to 
 
406 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 any want of love, or neglect of duty to thee, to whom 
 I owe more than I ever shall be able to express. 
 
 " My request now shall be to the Lord to prosper 
 thee in thy voyage, and enable thee and fit thee for 
 it, and give all graces and gifts for such employments 
 as he shall call thee to. I trust God will once more 
 bring us together before you go, that we may see 
 each other with gladness, and take a solemn leave, 
 till we, through the goodness of our God, shall meet 
 in "New England, which will be a joyful day to us. 
 With my best wishes to God for thy health and 
 welfare, I take my leave and rest, thy faithful, obe- 
 dient wife, Margaret Winthkop."^ 
 
 Governor IVinthrop landed on these shores in 
 June, 1630, and his wife followed him in about a 
 year. She lived till June, 1647, and was perhaps as 
 
 * The following extract from a letter 'written by the Governor ic 
 March, 1629, shows that he was not unconscious of the excellence of 
 the gift he possessed in his " yokefellow." Addressing her as " Mine 
 OWN DEAR Heart," he proceeds : 
 
 " I must confess thou hast overcome me with thy exceeding great 
 love, and those abundant expressions of it in thy sweet letters, "which 
 savor of moje than an ordinary spirit of love and piety. Blessed be 
 the Lord our God, that gives strength and comfort to thee to undergo 
 this great trial, which, I must confess, would be too heavy for thee, 
 if the Lord did not put under his hand in so gracious a measure. Let 
 this experience of his faithfulness to thee in this first trial, be a ground 
 to establish thy heart to beHeve and expect his help in all that may 
 follow. It grieveth me much, that I want time and freedom of mind 
 to discourse with thee, my faithful yokefellow, in those things which 
 thy sweet letters oifer me so plentiful occasion for, I beseech the 
 Lord, I may have liberty to supply it, ere I depart ; for I cannot thus 
 leave thee." 
 
OK ^\MERI(JAN WO:dEN. 
 
 4U7 
 
 useful in her more private, as iier husband in his 
 public and highly honorable, sphere. "A woman 
 of singular virtue, prudence, modesty and piety ; " 
 though dignified, she was condescending; and know- 
 ing her pla6e, she kept, and filled, and honored it. 
 With undimmed and steady lustre, she shone for 
 sixteen years amid the shadows of night that over- 
 hung and threatened the infant colony. 
 
A PIOl^EEE SETTLEE'S ADYENTURE. 
 
 -Screw your courage up to the sticking place, 
 
 And we '11 not faiL 
 
 Shakspeabe. 
 
 The first settler in Hollis, 'New Hampshire, was 
 Captain Peter Powers. He removed thither in 1731. 
 His nearest neighbor, for a time, was ten miles dis- 
 tant ; and in order to exchange courtesies it was ne- 
 cessary for the families to cross the I^ashua river. 
 It had but one convenient and safe fording place in 
 that vicinity, and that one only when the river was 
 low. 
 
 Having occasion, on a pleasant August morning, to 
 visit her neighbor, Mrs. Powers mounted a llTarra- 
 ganset, hastened away, and reached the place of des- 
 tination long before noon. Early in the after part 
 of the day a fearful thunderstorm came up, and con- 
 tinued for several hours. Just at sunset the clouds 
 began to break away, and Mrs. Powers immediately 
 started on her return. She did not reach the river 
 until some time after dark; and coming to the ford, 
 she found the bank full and the water — as a narrator 
 of the incident has it — "pressing on it with great 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 409 
 
 rapidity.'- Added to this alarming ciicumstauce, the 
 wind had shifted and rolled the clouds up the sky 
 again, so that the rain was descending in torrents, and 
 drowning the threatening voice of the waves. Trust- 
 ing to the experienced animal to keep the ford, and 
 giving a slack rein, without realizing the danger, the 
 courageous woman plunged into the black stream. 
 The steed almost instantly lost its foothold, and "roll- 
 ing in the waves at a full swim," made for the opposite 
 shore. Missing the ford, and striking a forefoot on a 
 rock in the bed of the stream, the animal was raised 
 momentarily half way out of the water. Then plung- 
 ing forward, it sank so deep that Mrs. Powers was 
 raised from the pommel ; but seizing the horse's mane 
 as it rose, she held her grasp till they were safely on 
 shore. The faithful animal soon found the right track, 
 and in a brief hour Mrs. Powers was under the shelter 
 of her cabin. 
 
MES. MoKEITJSrY. 
 
 More can I bear than you dare execute. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 "E'ot a great way from Steel's and Taylor's forts 
 was a settlement consisting of a few families, among 
 which were those of "William McKenny and his 
 brother James. These lived near Fishing creek. 
 In the summer of 1Y61, sixteen Indians, with some 
 squaws of the Cherokee tribe, took up their abode 
 for several weeks near what is called Simpson's 
 shoals, for the purpose of hunting and fishing during 
 the hot months. In August, the two McKenny s 
 being absent on a journey to Camden, William's 
 wife, Barbara, was left alone with several young 
 children. One day she saw the Indian women run- 
 ning towards her house in great haste, followed by 
 the men. She had no time to offer resistance ; the 
 squaws seized her and the children, pulled them 
 into the house, and shoved tnem behind the door, 
 where they immediately placed themselves on guard, 
 pushing back the Indians as fast as they tried to 
 force their way in, and uttering the most fearful out- 
 cries. Mrs. McKenny concluded it was their inten- 
 
OF AMEBIC AN WOMEN. 411 
 
 tion to kill her, and expected her fate every mo- 
 ment. The assistance rendered by the squaws, 
 whether given out of compassion for a lonely mother, 
 or in return for kindness shown them, — proved 
 effectual for her protection until the arrival of one 
 of the chiefs, who drew his long knife and drove 
 off the savages. The mother, apprehending another 
 attack, went to some of her neighbors and entreated 
 them to come and stay with her. Robert Brown 
 and Joanna his wife, Sarah Ferguson, her daughter 
 Sarah and two sons, and a young man named Michael 
 Melbury, came, in compliance with her request, and 
 took up their quarters in the house. The next morn- 
 ing Mrs. McKenny ventured out alone to milk her 
 cows. It had been her practice heretofore to take 
 some of the children with her, and she could not 
 explain why she went alone this time, though she 
 was not free from apprehension; it seemed to be so 
 by a special ordering of Providence. While she 
 was milking, the Indians crept towards her on their 
 hands and knees; she heard not their approach, 
 nor knew any thing till they seized her. Sensible 
 at once of all the horroi of her situation, she made 
 no effort to escape, but promised to go quietly with 
 them. They then set off towards the house, holding 
 her fast by the arm. She had the presence of mind 
 to walk as far off as possible from the Indian who 
 held her, expecting Melbury to fire as they ap- 
 proached her dwelling. As they came up, he fired, 
 wounding the one who held Mrs. McKenny; she 
 broke from his hold and ran, and another Indian 
 
412 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 pursued and seized her. At this moment she was 
 just at her own door, which John Ferguson impru- 
 dently opening that she might enter, the Indians 
 without shot him dead as he j)resented himself. 
 His mother ran to him and received another shot 
 in her thigh, of which she died in a few days. Mel- 
 bury, who saw that all their lives depended on 
 prompt action, dragged them from the door, fastened 
 it, and repairing to the loft, prepared for a vigorous 
 defence. There were in all five guns ; Sarah Fergu- 
 son loaded for him, while he kept up a continual 
 fire, aiming at the Indians wherever one could be 
 seen. Determined to effect their object of forcing 
 an entrance, some of the savages came very near 
 the house, keeping under cover of an outhouse in 
 which Brown and his wife had taken refuge, not 
 being able, on the alarm, to get into the house. They 
 had crept into a corner and were crouched there 
 close to the boarding. One of the Indians, coming 
 up, leaned against the outside, separated from them 
 only by a few boards, the crevices between which 
 probably enabled them to see him. Mrs. Brown 
 proposed to take a sword that lay by them and run 
 the savage through the body, but her husband re- 
 fused; he expected death, he said, every moment, 
 and did not wish to go out of the world having his 
 hands crimsoned with the blood of any fellow crea- 
 ture. ' Let me die in peace,' were his words, ' with 
 all the world.' Joanna, though in the same peril, 
 could not respond to the charitable feeling. 'If I 
 am to die,' she said, 'I should like first to send 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 4:13 
 
 some of the redskins on the journey. But we are 
 not so sure we have to die; don't you hear the 
 crack of Melbury's rifle? lie holds the house. 1 
 warrant you that redskin looked awfully scared as 
 he leaned against the corner here. We could have 
 done it in a moment.' 
 
 " Mrs. McKenny, meanwhile, having failed to get 
 into her house, had been again seized by the Indians, 
 and, desperately regardless of her own safety, was 
 doing all in her power to help her besieged friends. 
 She would knock the priming out of the guns carried 
 by the savages, and when they presented them to 
 fire, would throw them up, so that the discharge 
 might prove harmless. She was often heard to say, 
 afterwards, that all fear had left her, and she thought 
 only of those within the building, for she expected 
 for herself neither deliverance nor mercy. Melbury 
 continued to fire whenever one of the enemy ap- 
 peared; they kept themselves, however, concealed, 
 for the most part, behind trees or the outhouse. 
 Several were wounded by his cool and well-directed 
 shots, and at length, tired of the contest, the Indians 
 retreated, carrying Mrs. McKenny with them. She 
 now resisted with all her strength, preferring instant 
 death to the more terrible fate of a captive in the 
 hands of the fierce Cherokees. Her refusal to go 
 forward irritated her captors, and when they had 
 dragged her about half a mile, near a rock upon 
 the plantation now occupied by John Gulp, she 
 received a second blow with the tomahawk which 
 stretched her insensible upon the ground. When 
 
414 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 after some time consciousness returned, she found 
 herself lying upon the rock, to which she had been 
 dragged from the spot where she fell. She was 
 stripped naked, and her scalp had been taken off. 
 By degrees the knowledge of her condition, aiic) 
 the desire of obtaining help came upon her. She 
 lifted np her head, and looking around, saw tlie 
 wretches who had so cruelly mangled her, pulling 
 ears of corn from a field near, to roast for their 
 meal. She laid her head quickly down again, well 
 knowing that if they saw her alive, they would not 
 be slack in coming to finish the work of death. 
 Thus she lay motionless till all was silent, and she 
 found they were gone; then, with great pain and 
 difiiculty, she dragged herself back to the house. 
 It may be imagined with what feelings the unfor- 
 tunate woman was received by her friends and 
 children, and how she met the bereaved mother, 
 woimded unto death, who had suifered for her 
 attempt to save others. One of the blows received 
 by Mrs. McKenny had made a deep wound in her 
 
 back; the others were upon her head 
 
 " The wounds in Mrs. McKenny's head never 
 healed entirely; but continued to break out occa- 
 sionally, so that the blood flowing from them 
 stained the bed at night, and sometimes fragments 
 of bone came off; nevertheless, she lived many 
 years afterwards and bore several children. She 
 was at the time with child, and in about three 
 months gave birth to a daughter — Hannah, after- 
 wards married to John Stedman — and living in 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 415 
 
 Tennessee in 1827. This child was plainly marked 
 with a tomahawk and drops of blood, as if running 
 down the side of her face. The families of McKenny 
 and McFadden, residing on Fishing creek, are de- 
 scended from this Barbara McKenny; but most of 
 her descendants have emigrated to the West. The 
 above mentioned occurrence is narrated in a manu- 
 script in the hand-writing of her grandson, Robert 
 McFadden."-^ 
 
 • "Women of the Revolution, vol. 3. 
 
THE FISHEEMAIST'S HEEOIO WIFE 
 
 Strong affection 
 Contends with all things, and o'ercometh all things. 
 
 Joanna Baillib 
 
 " One of the small islands in. Boston bay was 
 inhabited by a single poor family. The father was 
 taken suddenly ill. There was no physician. The 
 wife, on whom every labor for the household de- 
 volved, was sleepless in care and tenderness by the 
 bedside of her suffering husband. Every remedy iii 
 her power to procure was administered, but the 
 disease was acute, and he died. 
 
 '' Seven young children mourned around the life- 
 less corpse. They were the sole beings upon that 
 desolate spot. * Did the mother indulge the grief of 
 her spirit, and sit down in despair ? J^o : she entered 
 upon the arduous and sacred duties of her station. 
 She felt that there was no hand to assist her in bury- 
 ing her dead. Providing, as far as possible, for the 
 comfort of her little ones, she put her babe into the 
 arms of the oldest, and charged the two next in age 
 to watch the corpse of their father. She unmoored 
 her husband's fishing boat, which, but two days 
 before, he had guided over the seas, to obtain food 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 417 
 
 for his family. She dared not yield to those tender 
 recollections, which might have unnerved her arm. 
 The nearest island was at the distance of three miles. 
 Strong winds lashed the waters to foam. Over the 
 loud billows, that wearied and sorrowful woman 
 rowed, and was preserved. She reached the next 
 island, and obtained the necessary aid. With such 
 energy did her duty to her desolate babes inspire her, 
 that the voyage which depended on her individual 
 effort, was performed in a shorter time than the re- 
 turning one, when the oars were managed by two 
 men, who went to assist in the last offices to the 
 dead." 
 
 27 
 
 % 
 
MKS. JAMES K POLK 
 
 A fault doth never with remorse 
 
 Our minds so deeply move. 
 As when another's guiltless life 
 
 Our error doth reprove. 
 
 Brandon. 
 
 Sarah Childress Polk is the daughter of an enter- 
 prising and wealthy merchant of Putherford county, 
 Tennessee. She was married on the first of January, 
 1824. 
 
 Fitted to dignify and adorn any station appropriate 
 for woman, while presiding at the White house she 
 was universally esteemed, and retired as honorably 
 as any woman since the days of Washington. She 
 is intelligent, refined, unafiected, affable, courteous, 
 hospitable, and, above all, pious, and exemplary as a 
 Christian. She has been for years in communion 
 with the Presbyterians; and while at the Capital, and 
 the eyes of the whole nation were upon her, she for- 
 bade, in the President's mansion, any amusement not 
 in keeping with the Christia.^ profession. In this 
 respect, it may be said of her, in the language of 
 Shakspeare, 
 
 Thou art not for the fashioii of these times. 
 
OF AMERIOAJSr WOMEN. 4 j Q 
 
 Tlie following poetical tribute, from the pen and 
 heart of Mrs. Stephens, is well merited : 
 
 Lady I had I the wealth of earth 
 
 To offer freely at thy shrine. 
 Bright gold, and buds of dewy birth, 
 
 Or gems from out the teeming mine, 
 A thousand things most beautiful, 
 
 All sparkling, precious, rich, and rare, 
 These hands would render up to thee — 
 
 Thou noble lady, good and fair! 
 
 For, as I write, sweet thoughts arise 
 
 Of times when all thy kindness lent 
 ♦ A thousand hues of Paradise 
 
 To the fleet moments as they went; 
 Then all thy thoughts were winged with light. 
 
 And every smile was calm and sweet. 
 And thy low tones and gentle words 
 
 Made the warm heart's blood thrill and beat 
 
 There, standing in our nation's home. 
 
 My memory ever pictures thee 
 As some bright dame of ancient Rome, 
 
 Modest, yet all a queen should be. 
 I love to keep thee in my mind. 
 
 Thus mated with the pure of old. 
 When love with lofty deeds combined, 
 
 Made women great and warriors bold. 
 
 When first I saw thee standing there. 
 
 And felt the pressure of thy hand, 
 I scarcely thought if thou wert fair, 
 
 Or of the highest in the land ; 
 I knew thee gentle, pure as great ; 
 
 All that was lovely, meek and good ; 
 And so T half forgot thy state 
 
 In lo\*_ oi thy bright womanhood. 
 
 And many a sweet sensation came 
 
 That lingers in my bosom yet. 
 Like that celestial, holy flame 
 
 That vestals tremble to forget • 
 
4r'20 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 And on the earth, or in the sky, 
 There's not a thought more true and free 
 
 Than that whicli beats within my heart, 
 In pleasant memory of thee. 
 
 Lady, I gladly would have brought 
 
 Some gem that on thy heart may Uve ; 
 But this poor wreath of woven thought 
 
 Is all the wealth I have to give. 
 All wet with heart-dew, fresh with love, 
 
 1 lay the garland at thy feet, 
 Praying the angel forms above 
 
 To weave thee one more pure and sweet. 
 
THE WIDOW JEJS^KINS. 
 
 In humblest vales the patriot heart may glow. 
 
 J. T. Fields. 
 
 At the time Colonel Watson, the commander of a 
 corps of regulars and tories, was making inroads 
 upon the Pedee, he pitched his tent one night near 
 the house of a widow named Jenkins, and took up 
 his own quarters under her roof. Learning, in the 
 course of the evening, that she had three sons fight- 
 '-!^g under General Marion, he commenced the fol- 
 lowing conversation with her : 
 
 " So, madam, they tell me you have several sons 
 in General Marion's camp ; I hope it is not true." 
 
 She said it was very true, and was only sorry that 
 it was not a thousand times truer. 
 
 '' A thousand times truer, madam ! " replied he, 
 with great surprise, " pray what can be your meaning 
 in that?" 
 
 " Why, sir, i am only sorry that in place of three, 
 I have not three thousand sons with General Marion." 
 
 " Aye, indeed ! well then, madam, begging your 
 pardon, you had better send for them immediately to 
 come in aud join his majesty's ti'oops under my 
 
422 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 command : for as they are rebels now in arms against 
 their king, should tliey be taken, they will be bung 
 as sure as ever they were born." 
 
 " Why, sir, you are very considerate of my sons ; 
 for which, at any rate, I thank yoli. But, as you 
 have begged my pardon for giving me this advice, I 
 must beg yours for not taking it. My sons, sir, are 
 of age, and must and will act for themselves. And 
 as to their being in a state of rebellion against their 
 king, I must take the liberty, sir, to deny that." 
 
 "What, madam! not in rebellion against their 
 king ? Shooting at and killing his majesty's subjects 
 like wolves ! don't you call that rebellion against 
 their king, madam ? " 
 
 "1^0, sir, they are only doing their duty, as God 
 and nature commanded them, sir." 
 
 " The d 1 they are, madam ! " 
 
 "Yes, sir, and what you and every man in England 
 would glory to do against the king, were he to dare 
 to tax you contrary to your own consent and the con- 
 stitution of the realm. 'T is the king, sir, who is in 
 rebellion against my sons, and not they against him. 
 And could right prevail against might, he would as 
 certainly lose his head as ever king Charles the First 
 did." * 
 
 * Weems' Marion, pp. 182-3. 
 
A FAITHFUL LITTLE GIEL. 
 
 Labor in the path of duty 
 Beam'd up like a thing of beauty. 
 
 C. P. Cranch 
 
 "A very profane and profligate sailor, who be- 
 longed to a vessel lying in the port of E'ew York, 
 went out one day from his ship into the streets, 
 bent on folly and wickedness. He met a pious little 
 girl, whose feelings he tried to wound by using vile 
 and sinful language. The little girl looked him 
 earnestly in the face, warned him of his danger, 
 and, with a solemn tone, told him to remember that 
 he must meet her shortly at "the bar of God. This 
 unexpected reproof greatly affected him. To use 
 his own language, 'it was like a broadside, raking 
 him fore and aft, and sweeping by the board every 
 sail and spar prepared for a wicked cruise.' Abashed 
 and confounded, he returned to his ship. He could 
 not banish from his mind the reproof of this little 
 girl. Her look was present to his mind ; her solemn 
 declaration, ' You must meet me at the bar of God,' 
 deeply affected his heart. The more he reflected 
 upon it, the more uncomfortable he felt. In a few 
 days his hard heart was subdued, and he submH- 
 ted to the Saviour." 
 
HOSPITALITY OF CALIFOKOTA WOME]^^ 
 
 Blest that abode where want and pain repair, 
 And every stranger finds a ready chair. 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 In his Three Years in California, the Rev. Walter 
 Colton speaks as follows of the native women : 
 
 Their hospitality knows no bounds ; they are 
 always glad to see you, come when you may ; take a 
 pleasure in entertaining you while you remain ; and 
 only regret that your business calls you away. If 
 you are sick, there is nothing which sympathy and 
 care can devise or perform, which is not done for you. 
 'No sister ever hung over the throbbing brain or flut- 
 tering pulse of a brother with more tenderness and 
 fidelity. This is as true of the lady whose hand has 
 only figured her embroidery or swept her guitar, as 
 of the cottage-girl wringing from her laundry the 
 foam of the mountain stream ; and all this from the 
 heart / If I must be cast, in sickness or destitution, 
 on the care of a stranger, let it be in California ; but 
 let it be before avarice has hardened the heart and 
 made a god of gold. 
 
SAEAH LAJVTMAI^ SMITH. 
 
 Where'er tlie path of duty led. 
 
 With an unquestioning faith she trod 
 
 T. W. Kenne. 
 
 Among the many names endeared to tlie friendp 
 of missions, is that of Sarah L. Smith, a native of 
 JN^orwich, Connecticut. Her maiden name was Hun- 
 tington. She was born in 1802 ; made a profession 
 of religion in youth ; became the wife of the Hev. 
 Eli Smith in July, 1833 ; embarked with him for 
 Palestine the September following ; and died at Boo- 
 ♦jah, near Smyrna, the last day of September, 1836. 
 
 Her work as a foreign missionary was quickly 
 finished. She labored longer as a home missionary 
 among the Mohea,gans, who live in the neighborhood 
 of ISTorwich, and there displayed most conspicuously 
 the moral heroism of her nature. In conjunction 
 with Sarah Breed, she commenced her philanthropic 
 operations in the year 1827. " The first object that 
 drew them from the sphere of their own church, was 
 the project of opening a Sabbath school for the poor 
 Indian children of Moheagan. Satisfied that this was 
 a work which Heaven would approve, they marked 
 
4r26 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 out their plans, and pursued them with untiring en- 
 ergy. Boldly they went forth, and, guided by the 
 rising smoke or sounding axe, visited the Moheagans 
 from field to field, and from hut to hut, till they 
 had thoroughly informed themselves of their numbers, 
 condition, and prospects. The opposition they en- 
 countered, the ridicule and opprobrium showered 
 upon them from some quarters, the suUenness of the 
 natives, the bluster of the white tenants, the brush 
 wood and dry branches thrown across their pathway, 
 could not discourage them. They saw no ' lions in 
 the way,' while mercy, with pleading looks, beckoned 
 them forward." 
 
 The Molieagans then numbered a little more than 
 one hundred, only one of whom was a professor of 
 religion. She was ninety-seven years of age. In her 
 hut the first prayer meeting and the first Sabbath 
 school gathered by these young ladies, were held. 
 
 Miss Breed soon removed from that part of the 
 country, and Miss Huntington continued her labors 
 for awhile alone. She was at that time very active 
 in securing the formation of a society and the circu- 
 lation of a subscription, having for their object the 
 erection of a chapel. She found, ere long, a faithful 
 co-worker in Miss Elizabeth Raymond. They taught 
 a school in conjunction, and aside from their duties 
 as teachers, were, at times, "advisers, counsellors, 
 lawgivers, milliners, mantuamakers, tailoresses and 
 almoners." * 
 
 * Missionary Offering, p. 86. We are indebted to the same source for 
 most of the particulars embraced in this article. 
 
OF A7.rF.r.TCAN WOATEN. 427 
 
 " The scliool was kept in a house on Fort ITill, 
 leased to a respectable farmer in whose family the 
 yoimg teachers boarded by alternate weeks, each go- 
 ing to the scene of labor every other Sabbath morning 
 ajid remaining till the evening of the succeeding 
 Sabbath, so 'that both were present in the Sabbath 
 school, which was twice as large as the other. A 
 single incident will serve to show the dauntless reso- 
 lution which Miss Huntington carried into her pur- 
 suits. Just at the expiration of one of her terms of 
 service during the winter, a heavy and tempestuous 
 fall of snow blocked up the roads with such high 
 drifts, that s friend who had been accustomed to go 
 for her and convey hsr home in bad weather, and 
 had started for this purpose in his sleigh, turned 
 back, discouraged. Ko path had been broken, and 
 the undertaking was so hazardous that he conceived 
 no female would venture forth at such a time. He 
 therefore called at her father's house to say that he 
 should delay going for her till the morrow. What 
 was his surprise to be met at the door by the young 
 lady herself, who had reached home just before, hav- 
 ing walked the whole distance on the hard crust of 
 snow, alone^ and some of the way over banks of 
 snow that entirely obliterated the walls and fences by 
 the roadside." 
 
 While at Moheagan, Miss Huntington corresponded 
 with the Hon. Lewis Cass, then Secretary of War, 
 and secured his influence and the aid of that depart- 
 ment. In 1832, a grant of nine hundred dollars was 
 made from th^ fund devoted to the Indian depart 
 
4:28 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 ment, five hundred being appropriated towards tlie 
 erection of missionary buildings and four for the 
 support of a teacher. Before leaving the Moheagan, 
 for a wider field, this devoted and heroic missionary 
 had the happiness of seeing a chape], parsonage and 
 school house, standing on " the sequestered land "* of 
 her forest friends, and had thus partially repaid the 
 debt of social and moral obligation to a tribe who 
 fed the first and famishing settlers in Connecticut, 
 and strove to protect them against the tomahawk of 
 inimical tribes, and whose whoop was friendly to 
 freedom when British aggressors were overriding 
 American rights. 
 
 * That was its original name. It is a reserved tract ; contains 
 between two and three thousand aci*es, and a consideralJe part is now 
 occupied by white tenants. Its situation is on the Thames, between 
 New London and Norwich. 
 
A BEOTHER SAVED BY HIS SISTER. 
 
 Brave spirits are a balsam to themselves. 
 
 Cautwright. 
 
 During the invasion of the Mohawk valley by 
 Sir John Johnson, Samson Sammons, of Johnstown, 
 and his three sons, were taken captive early one 
 morning in May. The females were not made pri- 
 soners. While a soldier was standing sentinel over 
 the youngest son, named Thomas, who was about 
 eighteen, the latter, who was not more than half 
 dressed, said he was not going to Canada in such 
 a plight; that he should need his shoes especially; 
 and asked permission to go to his chamber and get 
 his clothes. The favor was not granted ; but Tho- 
 mas, resolving to have his shoes, stepped towards 
 the door, when the barbarous soldier pointed a bay- 
 onet at his back, and made a plunge. At that 
 moment a sister, who had watched every movement 
 with breatliless anxiety, sprang forward, seized the 
 gun, threw herself across its barrel, bore it to the 
 ground, and thus saved her brother's life. After a 
 brief struggle, the soldier disengaged his weapo]i, 
 but before he had time to make another plunge, an 
 
430 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 officer rushed forward and asked what was the 
 trouble. The heroic girl stated the case, when the 
 soldier was severely rebuked, and her brother per- 
 mitted to obtain his shoes and all the raiment he 
 desired.* 
 
 * It may be interesting to tlie reader to know that Thomas Sam- 
 mons did not go to Canada. He was released in the afternoon of the 
 same day, with some other persons who had been taken prisoners' du- 
 ring the forenoon. Feigning extreme lameness in one foot, he attracted 
 the attention and excited the sympathy of the widow of a British 
 oflficer : she had resided in the neighborhood, knew many of the cap- 
 tives, and as some were her personal friends, she asked Sir John to per- 
 mit their release. He did so; and on going into the field to select 
 them, writes Colonel Stone, " she adi'oitly smuggled young Sammons 
 into the gi'oup, and led him away in safety." 
 
PATEIOTIC SACEIFICE OF MES. BOEDEIT. 
 
 They love their land because it is their own. 
 
 Halleck. 
 
 At the darkest period of the Eevolution, New 
 Jersey was, for a short time, full of British soldiers^ 
 and Lord Cornwallis was stationed at Bordentown."^ 
 He visited Mrs. Borden one day, at her elegant 
 mansion, and made an effort to intimidate her. He 
 told her that if she would persuade her husband 
 and son, who were then in the American army, to 
 join his forces, none of her property should be de- 
 stroyed ; but if she refused to make such exertions, 
 he would burn her house, and lay waste her whole 
 estate. Unintimidated and patriotic, she made the 
 following bold reply, which caused tlie execution 
 of the threat : " The sight of my house in flames 
 would be a treat to me, for I have seen enough to 
 know that you never injure what you have power 
 to keep and enjoy. The application of a torch to 
 my dwelling I should regard as the signal for your 
 departure." And such it was. 
 
 * Major Garden. 
 
MAKGAEET CORBIK 
 
 'VTiere cannon boomed, where bayonets clasbed, 
 There was thy fiery way. 
 
 Sara J. Clarr'e. 
 
 An act similar to tliat recorded of Mrs. Pitcher 
 at the battle of Monmouth, was performed by Mrs. 
 Margaret Corbin at the attack on Fort Washington. 
 Her husband belonged to the artillery; and, stand- 
 ing by his side and seeing him fall, she unhesita- 
 tingly took his place and heroically performed his 
 duties. Her services were appreciated by the offi- 
 cers of the army, and honorably noticed by Con 
 gress. This body passed the following resolution 
 in July, 1779 : 
 
 "E-esolved, — That Margaret Corbin, wounded and 
 disabled at the battle of Fort Washington, while 
 she heroically filled the j)C»st of her husband, who 
 was killed by her side serving a piece of artillery, 
 do receive during her natural life, or continuance 
 of said disability, one-half the monthly pay drawn 
 by a soldier in service of these States; and that 
 she now receive out of public stores, one suit of 
 clothes or value thereof in money." 
 
BEAYEEY OF MES. CHANJSTIKG. 
 
 -The truly brave, 
 
 When they behold the brave oppressed with odds. 
 Are touched with a desire to shield or save. 
 
 Byron. 
 
 Soon after the commencement of the Eevolutionarj 
 war, the family of Dr. Channing,* being in England, 
 removed to France, and shortly afterwards sailed 
 for the United States. The vessel, said to be stout 
 and well-armed, was attacked on the voyage by a 
 privateer, and a fierce engagement ensued. During 
 its continuance, Mrs, Channing stood on the deck, 
 exhorting the crew not to give up, encouraging them 
 with words of cheer, handing them cartridges, and 
 aiding such of them as were disabled by wounds. 
 When, at length, the colors of the vessel were 
 struck, she seized her husband's pistols and side 
 arms, and flung them into the sea, declaring that 
 she would prefer death to the witnessing of their 
 surrender into the hands of the foe. 
 
 * This anecdote, which is recorded in several works, jannot refer to 
 the late William EUery Channing, as he was not born at the com 
 raencement of the Revolution. 
 
 28 
 
COMMEISTDABLE COUEAaE. 
 
 Have chivalry's bold days 
 A deed of wilder bravery 
 In all their stirring lays ? 
 
 Sara J. Clarke 
 
 An incident whicli occurred at one of the forts in 
 the Mohawk valley, might have been mentioned in 
 connection with the heroism of Schoharie women. It 
 is briefly related by the author of Border "Wars of the 
 American Bevolntion. " An interesting young wo- 
 man," he writes, "whose name yet lives in storj 
 among her own mountains, perceiving, as she thought, 
 symptoms of fear in a soldier who had been ordered 
 to a well without the works, and within range of the 
 enemy's fire, for water, snatched the bucket from his 
 hands, and ran forth for it herself. Without changing 
 color, or giving the slightest evidence of fear, she 
 drew and brought back bucket after biicket to the 
 thirsty soldiers, and providentially escaped without 
 injury." 
 
THE HEEOIlSrE OF SHELL'S BUSH. 
 
 I dare do all that may become a man. 
 Who dares do more, is none. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 For three-fourths of a century, there has been a 
 wealthy settlement of Germans four or five miles 
 north of the village of Herkimer, in the upper part 
 of the Mohawk valley, called Shell's Bush. Among 
 the early settlers, was John Christian Shell, who had 
 a family of six brave sons and a no less brave wife. 
 When, on the sixth of August, 1781, a Scotch refugee 
 named Donald McDonald, at the head of sixty-six 
 tories and Indians, attacked that settlement, Mrs. 
 Shell acted the part of an heroic dame. The house 
 was built for border emergencies, and when the 
 enemy approached, the husband and older boys * fled 
 from the fields, entered their castle, and strongly 
 barricaded the doors. From two o'clock in the after- 
 noon until twilight, the besieged kept up an almost 
 incessant firing, Mrs. Shell loading the guns for her 
 
 * The two youngest boys, who were twins and about eight years 
 old, "were captured ; and when the enemy fled, they were earned 
 away as prisoners. 
 
436 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 Imsband and older sons to discharge. During the 
 siege, McDonald attempted to force the door with a 
 crow bar, and was shot in the leg, seized by Shell and 
 drawn within doors. Exasperated at this bold feat, 
 the enemy soon attempted to carry the fortress by 
 assault, five of them leaping upon the walls and 
 thrusting their guns through the loopholes. At that 
 moment the cool and courageous woman seized an 
 axe, smote the barrels and bent and spoiled them. 
 Her husband then resorted to stratagem to drive the 
 besiegers away : running up stairs and calling to Mrs. 
 Shell in a very loud voice, he said that Captain Small 
 was approaching with help from Fort Dayton. Then 
 raising his voice to its highest pitch, he exclaimed, 
 " Captain Small, march your company round upon 
 this side of the house. Captain Getman, you had 
 better wheel your men off to the left, and come up 
 apon that side." ^ Fearing the phantom troops whom 
 Mr. Shell's imagination had conjured, the enemy 
 shouldered their guns — crooked barreled and all — 
 and quickly buried themselves in the dense forest. 
 
 * Border Wars of the American Revolution, vol. 2, p. 153. 
 
FATHEE TAYLOR'S WIDOWED FRIEND. 
 
 Humble toil and heavenward duty. 
 
 Mrs. Hale. 
 
 " A pious widow, who resided among ignorant an< 
 
 vicious neighbors in the suburbs of B , Massa 
 
 chusetts, determined to do what she could for their 
 spiritual benefit ; and so she opened her little front 
 room for weekly prayer meetings, and engaged some 
 pious Methodists to aid in conducting them. Much 
 of the seed thus scattered on a seemingly arid soil, 
 produced fruit. One instance deserves special notice. 
 
 " Among others who attended, was a young sailor 
 of intelligent and prepossessing countenance. A 
 slight acquaintance with him discovered him to be 
 very ignorant of even the rudiments of education ; 
 but, at the same time, he had such manifestly supe- 
 rior abilities, that the widow became much interested 
 in his spiritual welfare, and could not but hope that 
 God would in some way provide for his further 
 instruction, convert him and render him useful. But 
 m the midst of her anticipations, he was suddenly 
 summoned away to sea. He had been out but a 
 Bhort time when the vessel was seized by a British 
 
438' NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 privateer and carried into Halifax, where the crew 
 suffered by a long and wretched imprisonment. 
 
 " A year had passed away, dm-ing which the good 
 woman had heard nothing of the yonng sailor. Still 
 she remembered and prayed for him with the solici- 
 tude of a mother. About this time, she received a 
 letter from her relations, w^ho resided in Halifax, on 
 business which required her to go to that town. 
 While there, her habitual disposition to be useful, led 
 her with a few friends to visit the prison with Bibles 
 and tracts. In one apartment were the American 
 prisoners. As she approached the grated door, a 
 voice shouted her name, calling her mother, and a 
 youth appeared and leaped for joy at the grate. It 
 was the lost sailor boy 1 They wept and conversed 
 like mother and son, and when she left she gave him 
 a Bible — his future guide and comfort. During her 
 stay at Halifax, she constantly visited the prison, 
 supplying the youth with tracts, religious books, and 
 clothing, and endeavoring by her conversation to 
 secure the religious impression made on his mind at 
 
 the prayer meetings in B . After many months 
 
 she removed to a distant part of the provinces ; and 
 for years she heard nothing more of the young sailor. 
 
 " We pass over a period of many years, and intro- 
 duce the reader to Father T , the distinguished 
 
 mariners' preacher in the city of B . In a 
 
 spacious and substantial chapel, crowded about by 
 the worst habitations in the city, this distinguished 
 man delivered every Sabbath, discourses as extraordi- 
 nary, perhaps, as are to be foimd in the Christian 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 439 
 
 world. In the centre column of seats, guarded 
 sacredly against all other intrusion, sat a dense mass 
 of mariners — a strange medley of white, black, and 
 olive ; Protestant, Catholic, and Pagan. On the other 
 seats in the galleries, the aisles, the altar, and on the 
 l)ulpit stairs, were crowded, week after week, and 
 year after year — the families of sailors, and the poor 
 who had no other temple — the elite of the city — ^the 
 learned professor — the student — the popular writer — 
 the actor — groups of clergymen, and the votaries of 
 gayety and fashion, listening with throbbing hearts 
 and wet eyes, to a man whose only school had been 
 the forecastle, and whose only endowments were those 
 of grace and nature. 
 
 " In the year 183 — , an aged English local preacher 
 
 moved into the city of B from the British 
 
 provinces. 
 
 "The old local preacher was mingling in a public 
 throng one day with a friend, when they met ' Father 
 
 T .' A few words of introduction led to a free 
 
 conversation, in which the former residence of his 
 wife in the city was mentioned, and allusion was 
 made to her prayer meeting — ^her former name was 
 
 asked by ^ Father T ; ' he seemed seized by 
 
 an impulse — inquired their residence, hastened away, 
 and in a short time arrived in a carriage, with all his 
 family, at the home of the aged pair. There a scene 
 ensued which must be left to the imagination of the 
 
 reader. ' Father T ' was the sailor boy of the 
 
 prayer meeting and the prison. The old lady was 
 the widow who had first cared for his soul." 
 
PICTUEE OF A EEYOLUTIOlSrAEY 
 MOTHEE. 
 
 This is my own, my native land. 
 
 Scott. 
 
 True wit is nature to advantage dressed. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Mrs. Eliza "Wilkinson resided during the Eevolntion 
 on Tonge's island, thirty miles sonth of Charleston, 
 South Carolina. She was a cheerful, witty and ac- 
 complished young widow, and a keen sufferer on 
 account of her whig principles. Her letters, arranged 
 by Mrs. Oilman, and published several years ago, 
 afford a panoramic view of many dark scenes at 
 the gloomiest period of American history, and beauti- 
 fully daguerreotype her own pure and patriotic heart. 
 A single extract will show her character. She 
 visited the city of Charleston soon after its surrender, 
 and witnessed the departure of her exiled friends. 
 Eef erring to matters about that period, she writes: 
 
 "Once I was asked by a British officer to play 
 the guitar. 
 
 " ' I cannot play ; I am very dull.' 
 
 " ' How long do you intend to continue so, Mrs, 
 Wilkinson?' 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 441 
 
 " * Until my countrymen return, sir I ' 
 
 "'Keturn as what, madam ? — prisoners or subjects?' 
 
 " * As conquerors, sir.' 
 
 "He affected a laugh. 'You will never see that, 
 madam ! ' 
 
 " ' I live in hopes, sir, of seeing the thirteen stripes 
 hoisted once more on the bastions of this garrison.' 
 
 "'Do not hope so; but come, give us a tune on 
 the guitar.' 
 
 " ' I can play nothing but rebel songs.' 
 
 " ' Well, let us have one of them.' 
 
 "'I^jTot to-day — I cannot play — I will not play; 
 besides, I suppose I should be put into the Provost 
 for such a heinous crime.' 
 
 " I have often wondered since, I was not packed 
 off, too ; for I was very saucy, and never disguised 
 my sentiments. 
 
 " One day Kitty and I were going to take a walk 
 on the Bay, to get something we wanted. Just as 
 we had got our hats on, up ran one of the Billets 
 into the dining-room, where we were. 
 
 " ' Your servant, ladies.' 
 
 " ' Your servant, sir.' 
 
 " ' Going out, ladies ? ' 
 
 " ' Only to take a little walk.' 
 
 "He immediately turned about and ran down 
 stairs. I guessed for what. . . . He of- 
 
 fered me his hand, or rather arm, to lean upon. 
 
 " ' Excuse me, sir,' said I ; 'I will support myself 
 
 if you please.' 
 
 19* 
 
4A% NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 " ' No, madam, the pavements are very uneven ; 
 you may get a fall; do accept my arm.' 
 " ' Pardon me, I cannot.' 
 
 " ' Come, you do not know what your condescen- 
 sion may do. I will turn rebel 1 ' 
 
 " ' Will you ? ' said I, laughingly — ' Turn rebel first, 
 and then offer your arm.' 
 
 " We stopped in another store, where were several 
 British officers. After asking for the articles I wanted, 
 I saw a broad roll of ribbon, which appeared to be of 
 black and white stripes. 
 
 " ' Go,' said I to the officer who was with us, ' and 
 reckon the stripes of that ribbon ; see if they are thw- 
 teen! ' (with an emphasis I spoke the word) — and he 
 went, too ! 
 
 " ' Yes, they are thirteen, upon my word, madam.' 
 
 " ' Do hand it me.' He did so ; I took it, and 
 
 found that it was narrow black ribbon, carefully 
 
 wound round a broad white. I returned it to its place 
 
 on the shelf. 
 
 " ' Madam,' said the merchant, ' you can buy the 
 black and white too, and tack them in stripes.' 
 
 " By no means, sir ; I would not have "them slightly 
 tacked^ hut firmly united.'' The above mentioned of- 
 ficers sat on the counter kicking their heels. How 
 they gaped at me when I said this ! But the mer- 
 chant laughed heartily." 
 
SUCCESSFUL DAEIISTG. 
 
 He stopped the fliers. 
 
 Shakspeabe's Coriolanus. 
 
 Many years ago, while a stage was passing through 
 Temple, JS'ew Hampshire, the driver's seat gave way, 
 and himself and a gentleman seated with him, were 
 precipitated to the ground. The latter was killed. 
 The horses took fright at the noise, and ran a mile 
 or more at full speed. Meanwhile, Miss Abigail 
 Brown, the only inside passenger and now the sole 
 occupant of the stage, endeavored, by speaking sooth- 
 ingly, to stop the horses. At length they came to 
 a high hill, when their speed began to slacken, and 
 Miss Brown, having previously opened the door 
 and taken a convenient position to alight, sprang 
 out. Not content to save her own life, but bent 
 on acting the part of a heroine, she rushed forward, 
 seized the leaders, turned them out of the road, and 
 held them fast till persons whom she had passed 
 and who had tried to stop the flying steeds, came 
 to her relief. Had this feat, trifling as it may seem, 
 been performed by the wife of some Koman digni- 
 tary, she would have been apotheosized and her bio- 
 graphy inserted in Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, 
 
WOETHY EXAMPLE OF FOKGIYENESS 
 
 They who forgive most shall be most forgiven. — Bailey. 
 
 " A worthy old colored woman in the city of I^ew 
 York, was one day walking along the street, on 
 some errand to a neighboring store, with her tobacco 
 pipe in her month, qnietly smoking. A jovial sailor, 
 rendered a little mischievous by liqnor, came saw- 
 ing down the street, and when opposite our good 
 Phillis, saucily crowded her aside, and with a pass 
 of his hand knocked her pipe out of her mouth. 
 He then halted to hear her fret at his trick, and 
 enjoy a laugh at her expense. But what was his 
 astonishment, when she meekly picked up the pieces 
 of her broken pipe, without the least resentment 
 in her manner, and giving him a dignified look of 
 mingled sorrow, kindness and pity, said, ' God for- 
 give you, my son, as I do.' It touched a tender 
 cord in the heart of the rude tar. He felt ashamed, 
 condemned and repentant. The tear started in his 
 eye; he must make reparation. He heartily con- 
 fessed his error, and thrusting both hands into his 
 two full pockets of '' chcmge^ forced the contents 
 upon her, exclaiming, ' God bless you, kind mother, 
 I'll never do so again.' " 
 
CEOOKSHAJSTKS SAYED BY A FEMALE. 
 
 Oh the tender ties, 
 
 Close twisted with the fibres of the heart 
 
 Young. 
 
 The night before the surprise of Georgetown, Adju- 
 tant Crookshanks, one of the enemy's officers, to- 
 gether with some of his commissioned comrades, 
 slept at a public house. The next morning it was 
 surrounded, and the Adjutant would have lost his 
 life, but for the interposition of the landlord's daugh- 
 ter, to whom he was affianced. Awakened and, at 
 first, alarmed by the firing without and the bustle 
 at the door, and hearing her lover" s voice, she sprung 
 out of bed and rushed, half dressed, into the piazza. 
 At that moment the swords of her countrymen 
 were raised over his head, and she threw her arms 
 around his neck, exclaiming, " O save ! save Major 
 Crookshanks!" Though made a prisoner, he was 
 forthwith paroled, and left, for the time, with the 
 brave and true-hearted maiden. 
 
A PATEIOTIC ARTIST. 
 
 Genius, tlie Pytliian of tlie Beautiful, 
 Leaves its large truths a riddle to the dull. 
 
 BULWEE. 
 
 "At the commencement of tlie Revolution, Mrs. 
 Wright, a native of Pennsylvania, a distinguished 
 modeler of likenesses and figures of wax, was ex- 
 hibiting specimens of her skill in London, The 
 king of- Great Britain, pleased with her talents, gave 
 her liberal encom-agement, and, finding her a great 
 politician, and an enthusiastic republican, w^ould often 
 enter into discussion relative to passing occurrences, 
 and endeavored to refute her opinion with regard 
 to the probable issue of the war. The frankness 
 with which she delivered her sentiments, seemed 
 rather to please than to offend him; which was a 
 fortunate circumstance, for, when he asked an 
 opinion, she gave it without constraint, or the least 
 regard to consequences. I remember to have heard 
 her say, that on one occasion, the monarch, irritated 
 by some disaster to his troo23S, where he had prog- 
 nosticated a triumph, exclaimed with warmth : ' I 
 wish, Mrs. Wright, you would tell me how it will be 
 possible to check the silly infatuation of your country- 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 447 
 
 men, restore them to reason, and render them gooa 
 and -obedient subjects.' — ' I consider their submis- 
 sion to your majesty's government is now altogether 
 out of the question,' replied Mrs. Wright : ' friends 
 you may make them, but never subjects ; for Amer- 
 ica, before a king can reign there, must become a 
 wilderness, without any other inhabitants than the 
 beasts of the forest. The opponents of the decrees 
 of your parliament, rather than submit, would perish 
 to a man ; but if the restoration of peace be seriously 
 the object of your wishes, I am confident that it 
 needs but the striking off of three heads to produce 
 it.' — ' O, Lord IS^orth's and Lord George Germaine's, 
 beyond all question; and where is the third head?' 
 O, sir, politeness forbids me to name Mm. Your 
 majesty could never wish me to forget myself, and 
 be guilty of an incivility.' 
 
 " Li her exhibition room, one group of figures par- 
 ticularly attracted attention ; and by all who knew 
 her sentiments, was believed to be a pointed hint at 
 the results which might follow the wild ambition of 
 the monarch. The busts of the king and queen of 
 Great Britain, were placed on a table, apparently 
 intently gazing on a head, which a figure, an excel- 
 lent representation of herself, was modeling in its 
 lap. It was the head of the unfortunate Charles the 
 First." 
 
TEMPEEAKCE MOYEMEISTT AMONG 
 MOHAWK WOMEIST. 
 
 Beware the bowl ! though, rich and bright 
 Its rubies flash upon the sight, 
 An adder coils its depths beneath, 
 Whose lure is woe, whose sting is death. 
 
 Street. 
 
 In the years 1801 and 1802, great efforts were 
 made loj the chiefs of the Mohawk Indians to pre- 
 vent the sale of spirituous liquors among their people. 
 In this humane movement the women of the tribe 
 readily joined ; and having assembled in council, on 
 the twenty-second of May, 1802, they addressed the 
 chiefs, whom they had summoned, as follows : 
 
 " UisrcLES, — Some time ago the women of this place 
 spoke to you, but you did not then answer them, as 
 you considered their meeting not sufficient. N^ow, 
 a considerable number of those from below having 
 met and consulted together, join in sentiment, and 
 lament, as it were with tears in our eyes, the many 
 misfortunes caused by the use of sj)irituous liquors. 
 We therefore mutually request that you will use 
 your endeavors to have it removed from our neigh- 
 borhood, that there may be none sold nigher to us 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 449 
 
 than the mountain. "We flatter ourselves that this 
 is in your power, and that you will have compas- 
 sion on our uneasiness, and exert yourselves to have 
 it done." Strings of Wampum. 
 
 This appeal had a good effect on the chiefs ; and 
 received suitable attention, drawing from them the fol- 
 lowing reply. It was delivered by Captain Brant: 
 
 " JN^iECES, — We are fully convinced of the justice 
 
 of your request; drinking has caused the many 
 
 misfortunes in this place, and has been, besides, a 
 
 great cause of the divisions, by the effect it has upon 
 
 the people's speech. We assm^e you, therefore, 
 
 that we will use our endeavours to effect what you 
 
 desire. However, it depends in a great measure 
 
 upon government, as the distance you propose is 
 
 within their line. We cannot, therefore, absolutely 
 
 promise that our request will be complied with." 
 
 Strings. 
 29 
 
A FEMALE IN THE EEYOLUTIOJS'ARY 
 
 AEMY. 
 
 She'll be a soldier too, she'll to the ■wars. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Deborali Samson, the daughter of very poor 
 parents, of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, began, 
 when about twenty years of age, to feel the patriotic 
 zeal which had prompted the sterner sex in hei 
 neighborhood to take up arms in their country's 
 defence. She accordingly assumed male attire, and 
 enlisted in the Revolutionary army. We agree with 
 Mrs. Ellet that, while this course cannot be com- 
 mended, her exemplary conduct, after taking the first 
 step, goes far to plead her excuse, and is worthy of 
 record. Her method of obtaining men's garments, 
 and her military career, are thus narrated by the 
 author just mentioned : 
 
 By keeping the district school for a summer term, 
 she had amassed the sum of twelve dollars. She 
 purchased a quantity of coarse fustian, and, working 
 at intervals when she could be secure from observa- 
 tion, made up a suit of men's clothing ; each article, 
 
OF AMERIOAN" WOMEN. 451 
 
 fls it was finished, being hid in a stack of hay. 
 Having completed her preparations, she announced 
 her intention of going where she could obtain better 
 wages for her labor. Her new clothes and such 
 articles as she wished to take with her, were tied in a 
 bundle. The lonely girl departed ; but went not far, 
 probably only to the shelter of the nearest wood, 
 before putting on the disguise she was so eager to 
 assume. Although not beautiful, her features were 
 animated and pleasing, and her figure, tall for a 
 woman, was finely proportioned. As a man, she 
 might have been called handsome ; her general 
 appearance was extremely prepossessing, and her 
 manner calculated to inspire confidence. 
 
 She now j)ursued her way to the American army, 
 where she presented herself, in October, 1778, as a 
 young man anxious to join his efforts to those of his 
 countrymen, in their endeavors to oppose the common 
 enemy. Her acquaintances, meanwhile, supposed 
 her engaged in service at a distance. Rumors of her 
 eloj)ement with a British soldier, and even of her 
 death, were afterwards current in the neighborhood 
 where she had resided ; bi it none were sufiiciently 
 interested to make such seai'ch for her as might have 
 led to a discovery. 
 
 Distrusting her own constancy, and resolute to 
 continue in the service, notwithstanding any change 
 of her inclination, she enlisted for the whole term of 
 the war. She was received and enrolled in the army 
 by the name of Robert Shirtliffe. She was one of the 
 first volunteers in the company of Captain ]S^athan 
 
452 TSrOBLR DEEDS 
 
 Thajer of Medway, Massachusetts ; and as the young 
 recruit appeared to have no home or connections, the 
 Captain gave her a home in his family until his com- 
 pany should be full, when they were to join the main 
 army. 
 
 We now find her performing the duties and 
 enduring the fatigues of military life. During the 
 seven weeks she passed in the family of Captain 
 Thayer, she had time both for experience and reflec- 
 tion ; but, in after years, her constant declaration was 
 that she never, for one moment, repented or regretted 
 the step she had taken. Accustomed to labor from 
 childhood, upon the farm and in out-door employ- 
 ment, she had acquired unusual vigor of constitution ; 
 her frame was robust, and of masculine strength ; 
 and having thus gained a degree of hardihood, she 
 was enabled to acquire great expertness and precision 
 in the manual exercise, and to undergo what a female 
 delicately nurtured would have found it impossible 
 to endure. Soon after they had joined the company, 
 the recruits were supplied with uniforms by a kind 
 of lottery. That drawn by Robert did not fit ; but, 
 taking needle and scissors, he soon altered it to suit 
 him. To Mrs. Thayer's expression of surprise, at 
 finding a young man so expert in using the imple- 
 ments of feminine industry, the answer was^ — that his 
 mother having no girl, he had been often obliged to 
 practice the seamstress's art. 
 
 While in the house of Captain Thayer, a young 
 girl visiting his wife, was much in the society of 
 Deborah, or, as she was then called, Robert. Coquet- 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 4:53 
 
 tish by nature, and perhaps priding herself on the 
 conquest of the " blooming soldier," she suffered her 
 growing partiality to be perceived. Kobert, on his 
 part, felt a curiosity to learn by new experience how 
 soon a maiden's fancy might be won ; and had no 
 scruples in paying attentions to one so volatile and 
 fond of flirtation, with whom it was not likely the 
 impression would be lasting. This little , piece of 
 romance gave some uneasiness to the worthy Mrs. 
 Thayer, who could not help observing that the liking 
 of her fair visitor for Kobert was not fully recipro- 
 cated. She took an opportunity of remonstrating 
 with the young soldier, and showed what unhappiness 
 might be the consequence of such folly, and how 
 unworthy it w^as of a brave man to trifle with a girl's 
 feelings. The caution was taken in good part, and it 
 is not known that the " love passage " was continued, 
 though Robert received at parting some tokens of 
 remembrance, which were treasured as relics in after 
 years. 
 
 For three years our heroine appeared in the charac- 
 ter of a soldier, being part of the time employed as 
 a waiter in the family of Colonel Patterson. During 
 this time, and in both situations, her exemplary 
 conduct, and the fidelity with which her duties were 
 performed, gained the approbation and confidence of 
 the oflicers. She was a volunteer in several hazardous 
 enterprizes, and was twice wounded, the first time by 
 a sword cut on the left side of the head. Many were 
 the adventures she passed through ; as she herself 
 would often say, volumes might be filled with them. 
 
^64: NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 Sometimes placed, unavoidably, in circumstances in 
 which she feared detection, she nevertheless escaped 
 without the least suspicion being awakened among 
 her comrades. The soldiers were in the habit of 
 calling her " Molly," in playful allusion to her want 
 of a beard ; but not one of them ever dreamed that 
 the gallant youth fighting by their side, was in reality 
 a female. 
 
 About four months after her first wound she re» 
 ceived another severe one, being shot through the 
 shoulder. Her first emotion when the ball entered, 
 she described to be a sickening terror at the proba- 
 bility that her sex would be discovered. She felt that 
 death on the battle-field were preferable to the shame 
 that would overwhelm her, and ardently prayed that 
 the wound might close her earthly campaign. But, 
 strange as it may seem, she escaped this time also 
 unsuspected ; and soon recovering her strength, was 
 able again to take her place at the post of duty, and 
 in the deadly conflict. Her immunity was not, 
 however, destined long to continue — she was seized 
 with a brain fever, then prevalent among the soldiers. 
 For the few days that reason struggled against the 
 disease, her sufferings were indescribable ; and most 
 terrible of all was the dread lest consciousness should 
 desert her, and the secret she had guarded so care- 
 fully be revealed to those around her. She was 
 carried to the hospital, and there could only ascribe 
 her escape to the number of patients, and the negli- 
 gent manner in which they were attended. Her case 
 was considered a hopeless one, and she perhaps 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 455 
 
 received less attention on this account. One day 
 the physician of the hospital, inquiring — " How is 
 Kobert ?" received from the nurse in attendance the 
 answer — " Poor Bob is gone." The doctor went to 
 the bed, and taking the hand of the youth supposed 
 dead, found that the pulse was still feebly beating; 
 attempting to place his hand on the heart, he per- 
 ceived that a bandage was fastened tightly around 
 the breast. This was removed, and to his utter 
 astonishment he discovered a female patient wliere he 
 had least expected one ! 
 
 This gentleman was Dr. Binney, of Philadelphia. 
 With a prudence, delicacy and generosity, ever after- 
 wards warmly appreciated by the unfortunate suf- 
 ferer^ he said not a word of his discovery, but paid 
 her every attention, and provided every comfort her 
 perilous condition required. As soon as she could be 
 removed with safety, he had her taken to his own 
 house, where she could receive better care. His 
 family wondered not a little at the unusual interest 
 manifested for the poor invalid soldier. 
 
 Here occurred another of those romances in real 
 life, which in strangeness surpass fiction. The doctor 
 had a young and lovely niece, an heiress to consider- 
 able property, whose compassionate feelings led her 
 to join her uncle in bestowing kindness on the friend- 
 less youth. Many censured the uncle's imprudence 
 in permitting them to be so much in each other's 
 society, and to take drives so frequently together. 
 The doctor laughed to himself at the warnings and 
 hints he received, and thought how foolish the censo 
 
4:56 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 I'ious would feel when the truth should come out. 
 His knowledge, meanwhile, was buried in his own 
 bosom, nor shared even with the members of his 
 family. The niece was allowed to be as much with 
 the invalid as suited her pleasure. Her gentle heart 
 was touched bj the misfortunes she had contributed 
 to alleviate ; the pale and melancholy soldier, for 
 whose fate no one seemed to care, who had no posses- 
 sion in the world save his sword, who had suffered so 
 much in the cause of liberty, became dear to her. 
 She saw his gratitude for the benefits and Idndness 
 received, yet knew by intuition that he would never 
 dare aspire to the hand of one so gifted by fortune. 
 In the confiding abandonment of woman's love, the 
 fair girl made known her attachment, and offered to 
 provide for the education of its object before mar- 
 riage. Deborah often declared that the moment in 
 which she learned that she had unwittingly gained 
 the love of a being so guileless, was fraught with the 
 keenest anguish she ever experienced. In return for 
 the hospitality and tender care that had been lavished 
 upon her, she had inflicted pain upon one she would 
 have died to shield. Her former entanglement had 
 caused no uneasiness, but this was a heart of a dif- 
 ferent mould ; no way of amends seemed open, except 
 confession of her real character, and to that, though 
 impelled by remorse and self-reproach, she could not 
 bring herself. She merely said to the generous girl, 
 that they would meet again ; and, though ardently 
 desiring the possession of an education, that she could 
 not avail herself of the noble offer. Before her de- 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 457 
 
 parture, the young lady pressed on her acceptance 
 several articles of needful clothing, such as in those 
 times many of the soldiers received from fair hands. 
 All these were afterwards lost by the upsetting of a 
 boat, except the shirt and vest Robert had on at the 
 time, which are still preserved as relics in the family. 
 
 Her health being now nearly restored, the physi- 
 cian had a long conference with the commanding 
 officer of the company in which Robert had served, 
 and this was followed by an order to the youth to 
 carry a letter to General Washington. 
 
 Her worst fears were now confirmed. From the 
 time of her removal into the doctor's family, she had 
 cherished a misgiving which sometimes amounted 
 almost to a certainty, that he had discovered her 
 deception. In conversation with him she anxiously 
 watched his countenance, but not a word or look 
 indicated suspicion, and she had again flattered her- 
 self that she was safe from detection. When the 
 order came for her to deliver a letter into the hands 
 of the Commander-in-chief, she could no longer de- 
 ceive herself. 
 
 There remained no course but simple obedience. 
 When she presented herself for admission at the 
 head-quarters of Washington, she trembled as she 
 had never done before the enemy's fire. Her heart 
 sunk within her: she strove in vain to collect and 
 compose herself, and, overpowered with dread and 
 uncertainty, was ushered into the presence of tbe 
 Chief. He noticed her extreme agitation, and, siip- 
 puiiiiig it to proceed from diffidence, kindly endea 
 
458 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 vored to re-assure her. He then bade her retire 
 with an attendant, who was directed to offer her 
 some refreshment, while he read the communication 
 of which she had been the bearer. 
 
 Within a short time she was again summoned 
 into the presence of Washington. He said not a 
 word, but handed her in silence a discharge trom 
 the service, putting into her hand at the same time 
 a note containing a few brief words of advice, and 
 a smn of money sufficient to bear her exj)enses to 
 some place where she might find a home. The deli- 
 cacy and forbearance thus observed affected her 
 sensibly. " How thankful," she has often said, " was 
 I to that great and good man who so kindly spared 
 my feelings ! He saw me ready to sink with shame ; 
 one word from him at that moment would have 
 crushed me to the earth. But he spoke no word — 
 and I blessed him for it." 
 
 After the termination of the war, she married 
 Benjamin Gannett, of Sharon. When Washington 
 was President, she received a letter inviting Kobert 
 Shirtliffe, or rather Mrs. Gannett, to visit the seat 
 of government. Congress was then in session, and 
 during her stay at the capital, a bill was passed 
 granting her a pension in addition to certain lands, 
 which she was to receive as an acknowledgment 
 for her services to the country in a military capacity. 
 She was invited to the houses of several of the 
 officers, and to parties given in the city; attentions 
 which manifested the high estimation in which she 
 was there held. 
 
HOSPITALITY OF ELIZABETH BEANT. 
 
 Stranger, whoe'er thou art, securely rest 
 Affianced in ray faith, a friendly guest. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 At the close of the last war, John and Elizabeth 
 Brant, children of the celebrated warrior, took pos- 
 session of their father's mansion at the head of 
 lake Ontario, and dispensed his " ancient hospi- 
 talities." While niaking the tour of Canada West 
 with two of his daughters, in 1819, James Buchanan, 
 Esq., British consul for the port of 'New York, visited 
 the "Brant House," and afterwards published the 
 following interesting account in a small volume of 
 Indian sketches : 
 
 " After stopping more than a week under the truly 
 hospitable roof of the Honorable Colonel Clarke, at 
 the Falls of Niagara, I determined to proceed bj 
 land, round lake Ontario, to York; and Mrs. Clarke 
 offered to give my daughters a letter of introduction 
 to a Miss Brant, advising us to arrange our time so 
 as to sleep and stop a day or two in the house of 
 that lady, as she was certain we should be much 
 pleased with her and her brother. Our friend did 
 
460 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 ngt intimate, still less did we suspect, that the intro- 
 duction was to an Indian prince and princess. Had 
 we been in the least aware of this, our previous 
 arrangements would all have given way, as there 
 was nothing I was more anxious to obtain than an 
 opportunity such as this was so well calculated to 
 afford, of seeing in what degree the Indian charactei 
 would be modified by a conformity to the habits and 
 comforts of civilized life. 
 
 "Proceeding on our journey, we stopped at an 
 inn, romantically situated, where I determined to 
 remain all night. Among other things, I inquired 
 of the landlord if he knew the distance to Miss 
 Brant's house, and from him I learned that it was 
 about twenty miles farther. He added, that young 
 Mr. Brant had passed that way in the forenoon, 
 and would, no doubt, be returning in the evening, 
 and that, if I wished it, he would be on the lookout 
 for him. This I desired the landlord to do, as it 
 would enable me to intimate our introduction to 
 his sister, and intention of waiting on her the next 
 morning. 
 
 "At dusk Mr. Brant returned, and, being intro- 
 duced into our room, we were unable to distinguish 
 his complexion, and conversed with him, believing 
 him to be a young Canadian gentleman. We did 
 not, however, fail to observe a certain degree of 
 hesitation and reserve in the manner of his speech. 
 He certainly expressed a wish that we would do his 
 sister and himself the favor of spending a few days 
 with them, in order to refresh ourselves and our 
 
OF AMEEIOAN WOMEN. 4:61 
 
 horses: but we thought his style more laconic than 
 hospitable. Before candles were brought in our new 
 friend departed, leaving us still in error as to his 
 nation. 
 
 "By four o'clock in the morning we resumed 
 our journey. On arriving at the magnificent shores 
 of lake Ontario, the driver of our carriage pointed 
 out, at the distance of ^ve miles, the house of Miss 
 Brant, which had a very noble and commanding 
 aspect; and we anticipated much pleasure in our 
 visit. Young Mr. Brant, it appeared, unaware that 
 with our carriage we could have reached his house 
 so soon, had not arrived before us; so that our ap- 
 proach was not announced, and we drove up to the 
 door under the full persuasion that the family would 
 be apprised of our coming. The outer door, leading 
 to a spacious hall, was open. We entered and re- 
 mained a few minutes, when, seeing no person about, 
 we proceeded into the parlor, which, like the hall, 
 was for the moment unoccupied. We therefore had 
 an opportunity of looking about us at our leisure. 
 It was a room well furnished, with a carpet, pier 
 and chimney glasses, mahogany tables, fashionable 
 chairs, a guitar, a neat hanging bookcase, in which, 
 among other volumes, we perceived a Church of 
 England Prayer Book, translated into the Mohawk 
 tongue. Having sent our note of introduction in 
 by the coachman, and still no person waiting on us, 
 we began to suspect (more especially in the hungry 
 state we were in) that some delay or difficulty about 
 breakfast stood in the way of the young lady's 
 
462 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 appearance. I can assure my readers that a keen 
 morning's ride on the shores of an American lake 
 is an exercise of all others calculated to make the 
 appetite clamorous, if not insolent. We had already 
 penetrated into the parlor, and were beginning to 
 meditate a farther exploration in search of the pan- 
 try, when, to our unspeakable astonishment, in walked 
 a charming, noble-looking Indian girl, dressed partly 
 in the native and partly in the English costume. 
 Her hair was confined on the head in a silk net, 
 but the lower tresses, escaping from thence, flowed 
 down on her shoulders. Under a tunic or morning 
 dress of black silk was a petticoat of the same 
 material and color, which reached very little below 
 the knee. Her silk stockings and kid shoes were, 
 like the rest of her dress, black. The grace and 
 dignity of her movement, the style of her dress 
 and manner, so new, so unexpected, filled us all with 
 astonishment. With great ease, yet by no means 
 in that commonplace mode so generally prevalent 
 on such occasions, she inquired how we found the 
 roads, accommodations, etc. Ko flutter was at all 
 apparent on account of the delay in getting break- 
 fast ; no fidgeting and fuss-making, no running in 
 and out, no idle expressions of regret, such as ' Oh ! 
 dear me ! had I known of your coming, you would 
 not have been kept in this way!' but, with perfect 
 ease she maintained conversation, until a squaw, 
 wearing a man's hat, brought in a tray with prepa 
 rations for breakfast. A table-cloth of fine white 
 damask being laid, we were regaled with tea, coflfee, 
 
OF AMERICAN AVOMEN. 463 
 
 hot rolls, butter in water and ice-coolers, eggs, smoked 
 beef, ham, broiled chickens, etc., all served in a 
 truly neat and comfortable style. The delay, we 
 afterwards discovered, arose from the desire of our 
 hostess to supply us with hot rolls, which were actu- 
 ally baked while we were waiting. I have been 
 thus minute in my description of these comforts, as 
 they were so little to be expected in the house of 
 an Indian. 
 
 "After breakfast Miss Brant took my daughters 
 out to walk, and look at the picturesque scenery of 
 the country. She and her brother had previously 
 expressed a hope that we would stay all day ; but, 
 though I wished of all things to do so, and had de- 
 termined, in the event of their pressing their invi- 
 tation, to accept it, yet I declined the proposal at 
 first, and thus forfeited a pleasure which we all of 
 us longed in our hearts to enjoy; for, as I afterward 
 learned, it is not the custom of any uncorrupted 
 Indian to repeat a request if once rejected. They 
 believ^e that those to whom they ofier any mark of 
 friendship, and who give, a reason for refusing it, 
 do so in perfect sincerity, and that it would be rude- 
 ness to require them to alter their determination or 
 break their word. And as the Indian never makes 
 a show of civility but when prompted by a genuine 
 feeling, so he thinks others are actuated by a similar 
 candor. I really feel ashamed when I consider how 
 severe a rebuke this carries with it to us who boast 
 of civilization, but who are so much carried away 
 by the general insincerity of expression pervading 
 
464 NOBLE DEEPS 
 
 all ranks, that few, indeed, are to be found who 
 speak just what they wish or know. This duplicity 
 is the effect of what is termed a high state of refine- 
 ment. We are taught so to conduct our language 
 that others cannot discover our real views or inten- 
 tions. The Indians are not only free from this de- 
 ceitfulness, but surpass us in another instance of 
 good breeding and decorum, namely, of never in- 
 terrupting those who converse with them until they 
 have done sj)eaking; and then they reply in the 
 hope of not being themselves interrupted. This was 
 perfectly exemplified by Miss Brant and her brother ; 
 and I hope the lesson my daughters were so forcibly 
 taught by the natural politeness of their hostess will 
 never be forgotten by them, and that I also may 
 profit by the example." 
 
 Elizabeth was the youngest daughter of Joseph 
 Brant. She was married to William Johnson Kerr, 
 a gentleman who bore a commission in the last war, 
 and fought against the Americans on the IS^iagara 
 frontier. He is a grandson of Sir William John- 
 son. The author of American Border Wars, wrote 
 in 1843, as follows : " Mrs. Kerr, as the reader must 
 infer from what has been previously said respecting 
 her, was educated with great care, as well in regard 
 to her mental culture as her personal accomplish- 
 ments. With her husband and little family, she 
 now occupies the old mansion of her father, at the 
 head of lake Ontario ; a noble situation, as the au- 
 thor can certify from personal observation." 
 
BEIEF AJSTECDOTES. 
 
 The worthy acts of women to repeat 
 
 Mirror for Magistrates. 
 
 Immediately after the dreadful massacre of Yir- 
 gmia colonists, on the twenty-second of March, 1622, 
 Governor Wyat issued an order for the remainder 
 of the peo|)le to ^' draw together " into a " narrow 
 compass*,"* and most of the eighty plantations were 
 forthwith abandoned. Among the persons who re- 
 mained at their homes, was Mrs. Proctor, whom Dr. 
 Belknap calls "a gentlewoman of an heroic spirit." f 
 She defended her plantation against the Indians a 
 full month, and would not have abandoned it even 
 then, had not the officers of the colony obliged her 
 to do so. 
 
 One of the best women of her times was Experi- 
 ence West, wife of the Rev. Dr. West, who was 
 pastor of a church in ISlew Bedford, Massachusetts^ 
 for nearly half a century. Her life abounded in 
 praiseworthy, though unrecorded, deeds. The Doctor 
 
 * Belknap. t American Biography, vol. 2, p. 182. 
 
 30 
 
466 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 was aware of the worth of his "help-meet," and had 
 a punning way of praising her which must have 
 sounded odd in a Puritan divine a hundred years 
 ago. She was uausually tall, and he sometimes re- 
 marked to intimate friends, that he had found, by 
 long Experience, that it is good to be married. 
 
 The Rev. V>\:. Mather Byles, of Boston, a tory of 
 considerable notoriety, paid unsuccessful addresses 
 to a young lady who subsequently gave her hand 
 to a gentleman of the name of Quincy. Meeting 
 her one day, the Doctor remarked : " So, madam, 
 it appears that you prefer a Quincy to Byles." 
 " Yes," she replied, " for if there had been any thing 
 worse than hiles^ God would have afflicted Job with 
 them." * 
 
 A married Shawnee woman was once asked by a 
 man who met her in the woods, to look upon and 
 love him : " Oulman, my husband, who is forever 
 before my eyes, hinders me from seeing you or any 
 other person." 
 
 * Sabine's American Loyalist. The loyal divine was himself a wicked 
 punster. "Near his house, in wet weather, was a very bad slough. 
 It happened that two of the selectmen who had the care of the streets, 
 driving in a chaise, stuck fast in this hole, and were obliged to get 
 out in the mud to extricate their vehicle. Doctor Byles came out, 
 and making them a respectful bow, said ; ' Gentlemen, I have often 
 complained to you of this nuisance without any attention being 
 paid to it, and I am very glad to see you stirring in the matter now.' 
 On the celebrated dark day in 1780, a lady who lived near the 
 Doctor, sent her young son with her compliments, to know if ho 
 could account for the uncommon appearance. His answer was : 
 'My dear, you will give my compliments to your mamma, and tell 
 her that I am as much in the dark as she is.' " 
 
OF AMEKICAN WOMEN. 4:67 
 
 WTiile the husband of Mrs. Dissosway, of Stateri 
 island, was in the hand^ of the British, her brother 
 IS'athaniel Randolph, i, Captain in the American 
 army, repeatedly and greatly annoyed tlie tories ; and 
 they were anxious to be freed from his incursions 
 Accordingly, one of their colonels promised Mrs. 
 Dissosway to procure her husband's release, if she 
 would prevail upon her brother to leave the army 
 She scornfully replied : " And if I could act so 
 dastardly a part, think you that General Washington 
 has but one Captain Eandolph in his army ? " 
 
 When, by permission of the British authorities, the 
 wife of Daniel Hall was once going to John's island, 
 near Charleston, to see her mother, one of the king's 
 officei's stopped her and ordered her to surrender the 
 key of her trunk. On her asking him what he 
 wished to look for, he replied, " For treason, madam." 
 "Then, said she, you may be saved the trouble of 
 search, for y ou may find enough of it at my tongue's 
 end." * 
 
 When a party of Revolutionary patriots left Plea- 
 sant River settlement, in Maine, on an expedition, 
 one of the number forgot his powder horn, and his 
 wife, knowing he would greatly need it, ran twenty 
 miles through the woods before she overtook him. 
 
 When the village of Buffalo was burnt during the 
 last war, only one dwelling-house was suffered to 
 stand. Its owner, Mrs. St. John, was a woman ot 
 
 * Major Garden. 
 
468 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 wonderful courage and self-possession ; and when the 
 Indians came to fire it, and destroy its inmates, she 
 ordered them away in such a dignified, resolute and 
 commanding, yet conciliatory, manner, that they 
 seemed to be awed in her presence, and were kept at 
 bay until some British officers rode up and ordered 
 them to desist from the work of destruction. Saved 
 by her presence of mind and heroic bravery, she 
 who saw her neighbors butchered at their doors and 
 the young village laid in ashes, lived to see a new 
 village spring up, phoenix-like, and expand into a 
 city of thirty-five thousand inhabitants. 
 
 Mrs. Beckham, who resided in the neighborhood of 
 Pacolet river. South Carolina, was a true friend of 
 freedom, and a great sufierer on that account. Tarle- 
 ton, after sharing in her hospitality, pillaged her 
 house, and then ordered its destruction. Her eloquent 
 remonstrance, however, caused him to recall the 
 order. Concealing a guinea in her braided hair, she 
 once went eighty miles to Granby, purchased a bag 
 of salt, and safely returned with it on the saddle 
 under her."^ 
 
 The house of Captain Charles Sims, who resided on 
 Tyger river. South Carolina, was often plundered by 
 tories ; and on one of these occasions, when his wife 
 was alone and all the robbers had departed but' one, 
 she ordered Jhinrb away, and he disobeying, she broke 
 his arm with a stick, and drove him from the house. 
 
 * Vide- ^Woraen of the Revolution, vol. 1, p. 296. 
 
OF AMKRIOAN WOMEN 469 
 
 Several years ago, a family, residing on the 
 Colorado, in Texas, were attacked by a party of 
 Camanche Indians, who fii'st fell upon two workmen 
 in the fields and slew them. Seeing one of them fall, 
 the proprietor of the establishment, who was stand- 
 ing near his house, caught two guns and ran towards 
 the field. A daughter hastily put on her brother's hat 
 and surtout, and followed her father. She soon over- 
 took him, and persuaded him to return to the house. 
 She bravely assisted in guarding it until the Indians, 
 tired of the assault, departed. 
 
 In the year 17Y7, when General Burgoyne entered 
 the valley of the Hudson, the wife of G-eneral Schuy- 
 ler hastened to Saratoga, her husband's country seat, 
 to secure her furniture. " Her carriage," writes the 
 biographer of Brant, " was attended by only a single 
 armed man on horseback. When within two miles 
 of her house, she encountered a crowd of panic- 
 stricken people, who recited to her the tragic fate of 
 Miss M'Crea,* and, representing to her the danger 
 of proceeding farther in the face of the enemy, urged 
 her to return. She had yet to pass through a dense 
 forest within which even then some of the savage 
 
 * The circumstances in regard to the murder of Jane M'Crea, have 
 been variously stated. The following version of the cruel stoiy is 
 probably correct : " Miss M'Crea belonged to a family of loyahsts, 
 and had engaged her hand in marriage to a young refugee named David 
 Jones, a subordinate officer in the British service, who was advancing 
 with Burgoyne. Anxious to possess himseK of his bride, he dispatched 
 a small party of Indians to bring her to the British camp. Her family 
 and friends were sti'ongly opposed to her going with such an escort ; 
 but her affection overcame her prudence, and she determined iipon tlie 
 
470 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 troops might be lui'king for prey. But to these pru- 
 dential counsels she would not listen. ' The General's 
 wife,' said she, ' must not be afraid ! ' and, pushing 
 forward, she accomplished her purpose." 
 
 While Thomas Crittenden, the first Governor of 
 Vermont, was discharging the functions of an exe- 
 cutive, he was waited upon one day, in an official 
 capacity, by several gentlemen from Albany. The 
 visitors were of the higher class, and accompanied 
 by their aristocratic wives. At noon the hostess 
 summoned the workmen from the fields, and seated 
 them at the table with her fashionable visitors. 
 When the females had retired from the dinner table 
 to an apartment by themselves, one of the visitors 
 said to the lady of the house, "You do not usually 
 have your hired laborers sit down at the first table 
 
 hazardous adventure. She set forward with her dusky attendants on 
 horseback. The family resided at the village of Fort Edward, whence 
 they had not proceeded half a mile before her conductors stopped to 
 drink at a spring. Meantime, the impatient lover, who deserved not 
 her embrace for confiding her protection to such hands, instead of going 
 himself, had dispatched a second party of Indians upon the same 
 errand. The Indians met at the spring ; and before the march was 
 resumed, they were attacked by a party of the Provincials. At the 
 close of the skirmish, the body of Miss M'Crea was found among the 
 elain, tomahawked, scalped, and tied to a pine-tree, yet standing by the 
 ?ide of the spring, as a monument of the bloody transaction. The 
 ascertained cause of the murder was this : The promised reward for 
 bringing her in safety to her betrothed was a barrel of rum. The 
 chiefs of the two parties sent for her by Mr. Jones quaireled respecting 
 the anticipated compensation. Each claimed it ; and, in a moment of 
 passion, to end ti^ controversy, one of them struck her down with his 
 hatchet." 
 
OF AMEKICAN WOMEN. 471 
 
 do you?" "Wby yes, madam," Mrs. Crittenden re- 
 plied, " we have thus far done so, but are now think- 
 ing of making a different arrangement. The Gov- 
 ernor and myself have been talking the matter over 
 a little, lately, and come to the conclusion that the 
 men, who do nearly all the hard work, ought to have 
 the first table, — and that he and I, who do so little, 
 should be content with the second. But, in compli- 
 ment to you, I thought I would have you sit down 
 with them, to-day, at the first table." * 
 
 At the Fair held in Castle Garden, in the autumn 
 of 1850, was exhibited a large Gothic arm-chair, 
 backed and cushioned with beautifully wrought 
 needle work in worsted. The needle work was from 
 the hands of Mrs. Millard Fillmore. It was setting 
 a noble example for the wife of a President to pre- 
 sent her handiwork at an industrial exhibition; and, 
 if the decision of the three Roman banqueters in 
 regard to their wives, was correct — they preferring 
 the one who was found with her maidens preparing 
 loom-work, — Mrs. Fillmore must be ranked among 
 the best of wives. 
 
 During the last war. Major Kennedy of South 
 Carolina, wished to raise recruits for his troop of 
 
 * We find the substance of this anecdote in a copy of the Green 
 Mountain Freeman published in March, 1851. The paper is edited by 
 Daniel P. Thompson, Esq., who prefaces the article with the remai'k 
 that the anecdote was related to him " by the late Mrs. Timothy Hub- 
 bard, of Montpelier, who, while a girl, was intimate with the Gover- 
 nor's family, and knowing to the amusing incident at the time of its 
 occurrence." 
 
4:72 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 norse; and accordingly went to Mrs. Jane White, 
 wlio had several hardj sons, and made known his 
 wants. She was a true patriot, like her husband, 
 who was an active " liberty man" in the war of '76 : 
 hence she was ready and anxious to further the 
 Major's plans. Her sons being at work in the field, 
 excepting the youngest, she called the lad, and 
 ordered him, in her broad Scotch-Irish dialect, to 
 " rin awa' ta the fiel' an' tell his brithers ta cum in 
 an' gang an' fight for their counthry, like their father 
 afore them."* 
 
 Among the fine sentiments quaintly uttered by 
 tiie old dramatic poet, Webster, are these: 
 
 The chiefest action of a man of spirit 
 Is, never to be out of action ; we should think 
 The soul was never to be put into the body. 
 Which has so many rare and curious pieces 
 Of mathematical motion, to stand still. 
 Virtue is ever sowing of her seeds. 
 
 One of the models in activity and virtue, and one 
 who doubtless secured thereby the prize of healthy 
 aud extreme old age, was Mrs. Lydia Gustin, a na- 
 tive of Lyme, Connecticut. She had ^ve children, 
 all of whom were at home to celebrate the hundredth 
 anniversary of her birth day. She died in Kew 
 Hampshire, on the twentieth of July, 1847, in the 
 hundred and second year of her age. A part of 
 the labor performed during her hundredth year, was 
 the knitting of twenty-four pairs of stockings. 
 
 * Mrs. Ellet. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 473 
 
 Mrs. Elizabetli Ferguson, who resided near Phila- 
 delphia, was one of the number who assisted the 
 American prisoners taken at the battle of German- 
 town. She spun linen and sent it into the city, with 
 orders that it be made into shirts. She was noted 
 for humanity and benevolence. Learning, one time, 
 while visiting her friends in Philadelphia, that a 
 reduced merchant had been imprisoned for debt, 
 and was suffering from destitution, she sent him a 
 bed and other articles of comfort, and, though far 
 from wealthy, put twenty dollars in money into his 
 hands. She refused to give him her name, but was 
 at length identiiied by a description of her person. 
 
 At the battle of the Cowpens, Colonel "Washing- 
 ton wounded Colonel Tarleton ; and when the latter 
 afterwards, in conversation with Mrs. Wiley Jones, 
 observed to her : " You appear to think very highly 
 of Colonel Washington; and yet I have been told 
 that he is so ignorant a fellaw that he can hardly 
 write his own name;" she replied, "It may be the 
 case, but no man better than yourself. Colonel, can 
 testify that he knows how to make his mark." 
 
PHILAISTTHKOPY OF AMERICAN WOMEIT: 
 
 MISS DIX. 
 
 To the blind, the deaf, the lame. 
 
 To the ignorant and vile. 
 Stranger, captive, slave he came, 
 
 With a "welcome and a smile. 
 Help to all he did dispense. 
 
 Gold, instiTiction, raiment, food ; 
 Like the gifts of Providence, 
 
 To the evil and the good. 
 
 MONTGOMEKT. 
 
 It requires the enlightening and expanding influ 
 ence of Christianity to show the full extent of fra- 
 ternal obligation, and to make one feel the wants 
 of his brother's threefold nature. We must, there- 
 fore, look for large hearts, whose antennse stretch 
 through the domain of man's mental and moral, as 
 well as his physical necessities, among a Christian 
 people: there such hearts abound, and the strongest 
 are among the female sex. Nor is this strange: the 
 Peelings of woman are more delicate, her constitution 
 is less hardy, than man's. Physically more frail, 
 she feels more sensibly the need of a helper and 
 protector; and, being the greater sufferer, she thinks 
 more of the sufferings of others, and consequently 
 more fullv develops the sisterly and sympathetic 
 feelings of her nature. 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 475 
 
 It is not, therefore, surprising, that in all the hu- 
 manitary movements of the age, American women 
 are interested ; but it is surprising to see with what 
 masculine energy, heroic courage and sublime zeal 
 they often prosecute their philanthropic labors. They 
 lead in the distribution of the poor fund ; are un- 
 tiring in their efforts to sustain Sabbath schools in 
 bj -places; form and nobly sustain temperance orga- 
 nizations among themselves; establish and conduct 
 infant schools on their own responsibility; manage 
 orphan asylums; pray, and plead, and labor for 
 the comfort of the insane, and for the education of 
 the deaf, dumb and blind ; and, with the religious 
 tract in one hand and the Bible in the other, plunge 
 into the darkest dens of vice, and, nerved by divine 
 power, sow the good seed of truth in the most cor- 
 rupt soil, with courage that seems to palsy the giant 
 arm of Infamy. 
 
 Heroines in the philanthropic movements which so 
 beautify the present age, are found in most of the 
 villages and in every city in the land. Isabella 
 Graham, Sarah Hoffman, Margaret Prior, and others 
 whose names are recorded in this work, are represen- 
 tatives of a class whose number is annually increas- 
 ing and whose philanthropic exertions are manifest 
 wherever human suffering abounds or the current of 
 moral turpitude is strong and appalling. With the 
 delicacy and fragility inherent in their sex, they pos- 
 sess the bravery and perseverance of the ambitious 
 leader in the military campaign, and shrink from 
 no task, however formidable or disheartening. 
 
4:76 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 They visit the abode of sickness, and the pillow 
 is softened and the pain allayed; they enter the 
 hut of penury, and the cry for bread is hushed, 
 they pour the tide of united and sanctified effort 
 through the Augean stables of iniquity, and the 
 cleansing process is astonishing. Such is the work 
 of philanthropic women ; they are the " salt " of the 
 community. 
 
 A lady is now living in the city of Buffalo, whose 
 benevolent exertions, in her restricted sphere, would 
 compare favorably with those of the celebrated Qua- 
 keress whose mission at l^ewgate justified, for once, at 
 least, the use of angel as an adjective qualifying 
 woman. The person to whom we refer — who would 
 blush to see her name in print — is foremost in all 
 the humane and charitable operations of the day, 
 and has, for years, been in the habit of visiting the 
 jail regularly .and usually alone on the Sabbath, to 
 instruct its inmates from the word of God and to 
 lecture before them on all that pertains to human 
 duty. She is married, and has a family — her chil- 
 dren being adopted orphans, — hence her opportuni- 
 ties for public usefulness are measurably limited : but 
 her life-long actions seem to say, 
 
 "Give me leave 
 To speak my mind, and I -will through and through 
 Cleanse the foul body of the infected worlds 
 If they will patiently receive my medicine." 
 
 Aside from our female missionaries, whose heroism 
 is elsewhere partially illustrated in this work, the 
 finest example of a living American philanthropist 
 
OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 477 
 
 is Miss D. L. Dix, of Massachusetts. Her extreme 
 modesty, learned through her New England friends, 
 with whom we have corresponded, withholds all facts 
 touching her early and private history, and leaves 
 us a paucity of materials out of which to frame 
 efen an outline of her public career. 
 
 We first hear of her as a teacher in the city of 
 Boston, in which vocation she was faithful and 
 honored. At the same time, she was connected, 
 as instructor, with a Sabbath school — belonsrino: 
 we believe, to Dr. Channing's society — and while 
 searching in by-places for poor children to enlarge her 
 class, she necessarily came in contact with many des- 
 titute persons, and saw much suffering. Ere long she 
 became interested more especially in the condition 
 and wants of poor seamen, and endeavored to enlist 
 the sympathies of others in their behalf. As oppor- 
 tunities presented themselves, she visited the hospi- 
 tal and other benevolent institutions in and near 
 Boston, together with the State Prison. Anon we 
 find her in the possession of a siiiall legacy left by 
 her deceased grand-mother ; and, having resigned the 
 office of teacher, she is traveling tlirough the state. 
 Having visited all the counties and most if not all 
 the towns in Massachusetts, hunting up the insane 
 and acquainting herself with their condition, visiting 
 the inmates of the poor-houses and jails, and learning 
 the state of things among all the unfortunate and 
 suffering, she went to the. Legislature, made a report, 
 and petitioned for reforms where she thought they 
 were needed. 
 
4:T8 NOBLE DEEDS 
 
 Having thoroughly canvassed one state, feeling her 
 benevolent heart expand, she entered another, and 
 went through the same routine of labors — visiting^ 
 reporting, pleading for reforms. She has traveled 
 through all the states but three or four, and has ex- 
 tended her humane mission to Canada. 
 
 She overlooks no almshouse ; never fails of seeing 
 and learning the history of an insane person; goes 
 through every jail and prison ; and usually, if no+ 
 invariably, has a private interview with each inmate, 
 imparting such counsel as wisdom and Christian sym- 
 pathy dictate. She has lately petitioned Congress 
 — as yet unsuccessfully — for a large appropriation 
 of the public lands for the benefit of the insane. 
 
 Her petitions are usually presented in a very quiet 
 and modest manner. In her travels, she acquaints 
 herself with the leading minds, and among them the 
 state and national legislators; and when the law- 
 making bodies are in session, she obtains an inter- 
 view with members in the retirement of the parlor or 
 the small social gathering; communicates the facts 
 she has collected; and secures their cooperation in 
 her plans and their aid in effecting her purposes. 
 
 She who began the work of reform as a teacher in 
 a Sabbath school, has advanced, step by step, until her 
 capacious heart has embraced the Union, throughout 
 which the benign influence of her philanthropic la- 
 bors is sensibly felt. -Some one has truthfully re- 
 I marked that " the blessings of thousands, ready to 
 
 perish, have come down upon her head," and that 
 the institutions which she has caused to be erected or 
 
OF A.MiJKJUA.N' V,'02dEN. IVJ 
 
 modified in the several states '* are monuments more 
 honorable, if not more enduring than the pyramids." 
 While Miss Dix has brought about important re- 
 forms, she has accomplished her labors by great 
 hardship and the most rigid economy. She had not 
 a princely fortune, like Mrs. Fry, to expend in be- 
 nevolent causes; she could not ride from place to 
 place in her own private and splendid carriage, 
 saying to this servant, do this, and to another, do 
 that; she has been obliged to travel by public, hap- 
 hazard conveyances — often in most uncomfortal)le 
 vehicles in the most uncomfortabk weather. A part 
 of her early labors in the state of New York were 
 performed in the winter, and when in the north- 
 eastern and coldest part, she was under the necessity, 
 on one occasion, of traveling all night in the se- 
 verest part of the season in an open carriage. To 
 show her economy, which has been hinted at, it is 
 necessary merely to say that she purchases the ma- 
 terials for most of her garments in the places w^hich 
 she visits, and makes them up with her own hands, 
 while traveling on steamboats, waiting for stages at 
 public houses, and such odd intervals of leisure.* 
 
 The character of Miss Dix is both pleasant and 
 profitable to contemplate. Every thing connected 
 with her public career is noble and worthy to be 
 imitated. Would that the world were full of such 
 
 * For the two last mentioned facts, and some others in regard to 
 Miss Dix, we are indebted to the Rev. G. W. Hosmer, pastor of 
 tb.3 Unitarian church, Bufi^o. 
 
4^A) 
 
 NOBLE DEEDS OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 
 
 ^I'llW )1 characters : they are needed. Al- 
 tliough she has done a great work, 
 jM much is yet to do. Our country 
 /Jm is wide, and enlarging almost every 
 '5 y^^^j t^® fi^ld ^^ benevolence is white 
 to harvest, and where are the reap- 
 ers, who, like Miss Dix, will make 
 their "lives sublime?" 
 
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