Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Distinguished Literary Women Gestefeld to Hurll

Ursula Newell Gestefeld
Born in Augusta, Maine. Founder of the system of new thought known as the Science of Being, and instructor for the Exodus Club organized in Chicago in 1897, which became later the Church of New Thought and College of the Science of Being. She was the first pastor of this church and head of the college. She has written several works on this subject and has a large following of students.

Jeannette Leonard Gilder
Was the daughter of the late Reverend William H. and Jane Nutt Gilder; the sister of the late Richard Watson Gilder, and was born at St. Thomas Hall, at Flushing, New York. Was associated for some time with her brother, Richard Watson Gilder, in the editorial department of Scribner's Monthly, now the Century, Literary editor and afterwards dramatic and musical critic of the New York Herald from 1875 to 1880. In 1881, in connection with her brother, Joseph B. Gilder, started The Critic, now Putnam's Magazine, of which she is associate editor. Was for many years correspondent of the Boston Saturday Cassette and the Boston Evening Transcript, also the London Academy, and New York correspondent for the Philadelphia Press and Record. Regular correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, Has written plays and stories for magazines. Is the author of "Taken by Siege," "The Autobiography of a Tomboy," "The Tomboy at Work-Edited "Essays from the Critic," and "Representative Poems of Living Poets" and "Pen Portraits of Literary Women" and "Authors at Home."

Mary Rebecca Foster Gilman 1859 ~
Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1859. Daughter of Dwight and Henriette P. B. Foster. Married in 1887, Rev. Bradley Gilman. Critic on the Springfield Republican and Suburban Life, Author of "The Life of St. Theresa," in series of famous women, "The Pilgrim's Scrip" a collection of wisdom and wit of George Meredith. Edited Mrs. Fawcett's "Life of Queen Victoria." A contributor to magazines and periodicals.

Ellen Anderson G. Glasgow 1874 _ 1945
Miss Glasgow is a Virginia writer who has become a member of the literary life of the New South. "The Descendant," "The Phases of an Inferior Planet" and "The Voice of the People" are among her best works. She was born in Richmond, Virginia, April 22, 1874, and lived the greater part of her life at the family home. Her father was a lawyer, and the majority of her male ancestors were either lawyers, judges or men of literary tastes and talents.

Marie Louise Greene
Miss Greene was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She received the degree of A. B. from Vassar in 1891; has done special work in American history in Yale College. She is a student and writer on gardening and New England history. She is the author of "The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut," "Among School Gardens," etc.

Sarah Pratt Greene 1856 ~
Born at Simsbury, Connecticut, July 3, 1856. Daughter of Dudley Boston and Mary Paine McLean. July, 1887, married Franklin Lynde Greene, now deceased. Her book, "Cape Cod Folks," which appeared some twenty years ago, made quite a stir and entitled her to literary prominence. She has since written "Some Other Folks," "Towhead," "Last Chance Junction," "Moral Imbeciles," "Flood Tide," and many other stories published in book form and has contributed short stories largely to Harper's Magazine and other publications.

Elizabeth Lincoln Gould
Born in Boston. Daughter of Charles Duren and Sarah Bell (Wheeler) Gould. Contributor to Youth's Companion, Author of a play from Louisa M. Alcott's "Little Men"; also one from "Little Women"; the stories, "Little Polly Prentiss," "Felicia," and "Felicia's Friend," and others.

Edith Guerrier 1870 ~
Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, September 30, 1870. Daughter of (George Pearce and Emma Louisa Ricketson Guerrier. Head resident of Library Club House, Boston. Author of "Wonderfolk in Wonderland," and other folk-lore stories.

Helen Haines
Daughter of John Ladd Colby, a physician of New York, where she was born. She married Charles Owens Haines, of Savannah, Georgia, who was a rail-road builder and manager; has contributed short stories, some of which are entitled "Caper Sauce" "The Crimson Rambler," to the American Magazine and Scribner's Magazine.

Adelaide S. Hall 1857 ~
Born in Westmoreland, New York, November 2, 1857. The daughter of Schuyler and Susan Waldo Wade Hall. Contributor to magazines on topics of art and travel. Curator of the Chicago Gallery of Fine Arts and lecturer on art topics.

Margaret Mary Brophy Halvey
Was born in Queens County, Ireland, in the early sixties. Her father's family came to Ireland at the time of Henry II, in 1192, and her mother was one of the first Catholics in her family since the Reformation. In 1884 she married Timothy Frederick Halvey, founder of the first Gaelic School in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Buffalo, and originator of Robert Emmet Day (March 4). She was active during the World's Fair and Social Science Exhibit, introducing the Irish industries, particularly the lace exhibit. Was the first woman secretary of the Catholic Historical Society, and secretary and co-founder of the Woman's Auxiliary Board. Author of poems and short stories. Is one of the officers for the Anti- Vivisection Society; also the Woman's Pen Society. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and president of the Ladies' Land League, branch secretary of the Ladies' Aid Society for Widows and Orphans. Makes her home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Edith Ogden Harrison
Daughter of Robert N. Ogden, and the wife of Carter Henry Harrison, mayor of Chicago, Illinois, who occupies the unique position of having been elected five times mayor of Chicago and his father before him was also five times mayor of that city. Mrs. Harrison is the author of "Prince Silverwings," "The Star Fairies," "The Moon Princess," "The Flaming Sword," "The Mocking Bird." "Biblical Stories Retold for Children," "Cotton Myth," "Polar Star" and other short stories.

Mary Bronson Hartt 1873 ~
Born in Ithaca, New York, March 23, 1873. Daughter of Prof. Charles Frederick and Lucy Cornelia Lynde Hartt. Her father was a professor of Cornell University. She is a contributor to the World's Work, Scribner's, Century, Youth's Companion, and Boston Transcript.

Mrs. C H. Hawes 1871 ~
Mrs. C H. Hawes, of Hanover, New Hampshire, the well-known archaeologist, was born in Boston, October 11, 1871. She is the daughter of Alexander and Harriet Fay Wheeler Boyd. She received the degrees of A.B. and A.M. from Smith College, and was a student of the School of Classical Studies of Athens, Greece, from 1896 to 1900. On March 3, 1906, she was married to Charles H. Hawes, MA., of Cambridge, England. Mrs. Hawes served as a nurse in the Greco-Turkish war in 1897, and also in our war with Spain in 1898 at Tampa, Florida. From 1900 to 1905 she was instructor in archaeology at Smith College. Mrs. Hawes has carried on her own excavations in Crete, and in 1900 excavated houses and tombs of the Geometric Period (900 B.C.). In 1904 she excavated a Minoan town, at Gournia, Crete, for the American Exploration Society of Philadelphia. Mrs. Hawes has been decorated with the Red Cross by Queen Olga of Greece, for her services during the Greco-Turkish war. She is a distinguished writer on archaeology and kindred subjects. Among her best known works are "Gournia, Vasiliki and Other Prehistoric Sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete," and "The Forerunner of Greece." She is a contributor to the American Journal of Archeology.

Agnes Leonard Hill 1842
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, January 20, 1842. Daughter of Dr. Oliver Langdon and Agnes (Howard) Leonard. Writer for newspapers of Chicago and other cities. Has done evangelical work. In 1896 was assistant pastor of SL Paul's Universalist Church, Chicago. In 1905 was pastor of the Congregational Church, Wollaston, England. Has written on religious subjects.

John Oliver Hobbes (Mrs. Craigie.) 1867 ~
Mrs. Pearl Mary Theresa Craigie was born in Boston, Massachusetts, November 3, 1867. Her mother's maiden name was Laura Hortense Arnold. Her father was John Morgan Richards, the son of Reverend Doctor James Richards, the founder of Auburn Theological Seminary, of New York. She received her early education from tutors, later studying in Paris, and then in London. She was an enthusiastic student of classical literature, and through the advice of Professor Goodwin she took up literature as a profession. In 1887, she was married to Mr. Reginald Walpole Craigie of a well-to-do English family. "Robert of Orange" was one of her early and most notable books. Mrs. Craigie did some writing for the stage and one of her plays, "The Ambassador,' was considered very good Her story ''Love and Soul Hunters,' has not been excelled by any of her contemporaries.

Marietta Holley
Miss Marietta Holley is most affectionately remembered by her pen name of "Josiah Allen's Wife." She was born at Ellisburgh, Jefferson County, New York, and is the daughter of John M. and Mary Tabro Holley. Her best known works are: "My Opinions and Betsy Bobbett's," "Samantha at the Centennial," "My Wayward Partner," "The Mormon Wife" (a poem), "Miss Richard's Boy," "Sweet Cicely," "Samantha at Saratoga," "Samantha Amongst the Brethren," "Samantha in Europe," "Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife," "Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition," "Samantha on Children's Rights," "The Borrowed Automobile."
Frances Willard said of Miss Holley: "Brave, sweet spirit, you don't know how much we all love you. No woman has more grandly helped the woman's cause."

Pauline Bradford Mackie Hopkins 1873 ~
Mrs. Hopkins is a writer of historical fiction. For two yean after her graduation from the Toledo High School she was engaged as a writer on the Toledo Blade. She soon abandoned this for a literary career, and most of her stories have appeared in magazines and newspapers. "Mademoiselle de Berny" and "Ye Lyttle Salem Maide" were, after most trying experiences with publishers, printed in book form. "A Georgian Actress" was written in Berkeley, California, where Mrs. Hopkins had gone with her husband, Dr. Herbert Müller Hopkins, now occupying the chair of Latin in Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut Here she also wrote two novels of Washington life during the Civil War. Mrs. Hopkins was born in Connecticut in 1873. Her father, Rev. Andrew Mackie, was an Episcopal clergyman and a very scholarly man, from whom she inherited her literary talent.

Julia Ward Howe 1819
Few women of America enjoy greater fame than Julia Ward Howe, the author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." She can be classed as an essayist, poetess, philanthropist, and public speaker. She was born in New York City. May 27, 1819. Her parents were Samuel and Julia Cuttler Ward. She included among her ancestors some of the descendants of the Huguenots, the Marions of South Carolina, Governor Sam Ward of Rhode Island, and Roger Williams, the apostle of religious tolerance. Her father being a banker and a man of means gave her every advantage of education and accomplishment. In 1843 she married Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, and they spent some time abroad. In 1852 she published her first volume of poems; in 1853 a drama in blank verse, and during the war other works and patriotic songs. In 1867 while she and her husband were visitors in Greece they won the affection and gratitude of the people by aiding them in their struggle for national independence. In 1868 she took as active part in the suffrage movement. She preached, wrote and lectured for many years. She died in the summer of 1910, but her fame will ever be linked with the "Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Florence Huntley
Mrs. Huntley was born at Alliance, Ohio. Daughter of Rev. Henry and Charlotte Trego Chance. Editor of the Iowa City Republican in 1901. Now engaged on a series of writings on the system of science and philosophy intended to connect the demonstrated and recorded knowledge of ancient spiritual schools with the discovered and published facts of the modem physical school of science. Has written several books, among them "Harmonics of Evolution," "The Great Psychological Crime," "The Destructive Principle of Nature in Individual Life," and "The Constructive Principle of Individual Life," etc.

Estelle May Hurll 1863 ~
Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, July 25, 1863. Daughter of Charles W. and Sarah S. Hurll. In 1908 married John C. Hurll. Teacher of ethics at Wellesley College from 1884-91. Author of books on art, including "Child Life in Art," "The Madonna in Art," and books on Rembrandt, Michael Angelo, "Greek Sculpture," "Titian," "Landseer," "Correggio." "Tuscan Sculpture," "Van Dyck," "Portrait and Portrait Painting."

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.