Woman of the Century/E. Pauline Johnson

E. PAULINE JOHNSON. JOHNSON, Miss E. Pauline, poet, born in the family residence, "Chiefs wood," on the Six Nation Indian Reserve, Brant county, Ontario, Canada, ten miles east of Brantford, her present home. Her father. George Henry Martin Johnson, Owanonsyshon (The Man With the Big House), was head chief of the Mohawks. Her mother, Emily S. Howells, an English woman, was born in Bristol, England. Miss Johnson's paternal grand-father was the distinguished John Sakayenkwaeaghton (Disappearing Mist) Johnson, usually called John Smoke Johnson, a pure Mohawk of the Wolf clan and speaker of the Six Nation Council for forty years; he fought for the British through the War of 1812-15, and was noted for his bravery. The name of his paternal great-grandfather was Tekahionwake, but when christening him "Jacob," in Niagara, Sir William Johnson, who was present, suggested they christen him Johnson also, after himself; hence the family name now used as surname. Miss Johnson was educated at home by governesses and afterwards in the Brantford Model School. She is an earnest member of the Church of England, and was christened Pauline, after the favorite sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was Chief Johnson's greatest hero. It is an interesting fact that, with her birth-claim to the name of a Mohawk Indian, she possesses an uncommon gift of felicitous prose as well as an acknowledged genius of verse. Her first verses appeared in the "Gems of Poetry" New York. She is a constant contributor to various Canadian papers, the "Week," "Saturday Night" and the "Globe," also prose articles In the "Boston Transcript." She has been very successful on the platform.