dark years. On the walls is a copy of the above mentioned resolution of Congress. This copy was signed by Abraham Lincoln in the presence of Mrs. Fowle.
Mrs. Fowle and her mother, Mrs. Ramsey, were among the earliest workers in Mrs. Burnap's Free Home for Aged Women, on Hanover Court (North End), Boston; in Mrs. Charpiot's Home for Intemperate Women, on Worcester Street; the New England Helping Hand Home for Working-girls, on Carver Street; Home for Aged Couples, on Shawmut Avenue; and the Charity Hospital, on Chester Park. At present both Mr. and Mrs. Fowle are interested in establishing a library and reading and recreation room for boys and girls on old Boston Street, near Upham's Corner, Dorchester. She has been connected with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Dorchester; is a member of the Woman's Charity Club; of the Massachusetts Army Nurses' Association; of the Ladies' Aid Association of the Soldiers' Home; and of Bunker Hill Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.
Mrs. Fowle claims the honor of having been the first person to sing the ^Battle Hymn of the Republic" at a public meeting in Washington. Its previous use was by a secret society as a club song. The Rev. Dr. Sunderland read it to her one afternoon in his home, and at her request gave her a copy, that she might include it among the war songs she was to sing in the evening at a meeting of the New York State Society in one of the churches. The meeting was presided over by Senator Ira Harris. Toward the close she sang the inspiring words of Mrs. Howe to the old familiar tune of "John Brown," and "as the audience joined in the chorus, especially after the last verse, beginning with 'In the beauty of the lilies,' the very foundation stones of the church," she .says, "seemed to vibrate with applause."
JANE W. HOYT.—Among those who, in the early part of the nineteenth century, anticipated by personal application to study the later movement for the higher education of women was Miss Jane W. Hoyt. She was born in Phillips, Franklin County, Me., August 26, 1827, the youngest of a family of nine children. Her parents, Samuel and Elizabeth (Tower) Hoyt, were of early New England stock, her father, a native of New Hampton, N.H., being a lineal descendant of John' Hoyt, one of the original settlers of Salisbury, Mass., and her mother belonging to the family founded by John1 Tower, who came from Hingham, England, and settled in Hingham, Mass., in 1637. From John1 Tower the line continued through Ibrook,2 Richard,3 Elisha,4 Elisha,5 all of Hingham, Mass., to Sylvanus,6 born in 1766, who married Mercy Card, settled in Farmington, Me., and was the father of Elizabeth7 (Mrs. Samuel Hoyt) and her brother Daniel.
As a child, Jane Hoyt evinced a love for study which grew with her years. This was gratified in her native town and at Farmington, which was then, as now, the educational centre of the county. She afterward was graduated with honor from the New Hampton Literary Institution, in New Hampton, N.H., and became a successful teacher and principal of some of the higher schools then open to women, as the Maine State Seminary at Lewiston, the semi- nary at Olneyville, R.I., and Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Mich., where she was dean of the women's department. In 1871 and 1872 she took an extended trip to Europe, and made a special study of German under private teachers and in the schools of Hanover. On her return she was elected to a professorship in Center College, Pennsylvania, and later was at the head of a boarding and day school in Goshen, N.Y. In 1874, her health becoming impaired, she resigned the position and returned to Farmington. Here her home life was exceptionally happy, her brother Daniel, her sister Ann, and herself making a most hospitable household. The death of the brother in 1899 was a great grief to the sisters; but, dwelling not on their own sorrow, they sought to comfort others. Though fond of books and much engaged with pupils, Miss Hoyt was ever ready to give her time and strength to aid neighbors and friends. Soon after her return to Farmington and be- fore taking her much needed rest, she sought two friends and proposed the formation of aa
