Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/217

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REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND

work and ministration of comfort to those in distress that I will speak. While Mrs. Robinson has found time to perform an enormous amount of work of a pul)lip nr semi-public nature, she has also pinched out an hour or day from such work to visit the unknown sick, to collect and disburse comforts and delicacies to those in distress, and to give a guiding hand in the affairs of families helpless because of in- efficiency or shiftlessness. One or two specific cases described is better than a column of generalities. One family to which she was called consisted of a husband, wife, and eight small children. Husband a drinking man, wife a drinking woman, who had led a life of debauchery and was in the last stages of consumption. Home barren of furniture and even of the commonest utensils of a kitchen outfit. To this miserable home Mrs. Robinson went out one night and nursed the sick woman for several days, until the poor unfortunate passed on to the great majority. Few women occupying Mrs. Robinson's sphere in life would have deigned to leave their own comfortable homes and become a nurse in a stranger's house, and still fewer the number who would venture into a household of squalor and vermin to perform the noble service."

Mrs. Robinson is a member of the Benevolent Committee of the First Universalist Church of Worcester, and is one of the leading workers of the church. The Rev. Almon Gunnison, D.D., President of St. Lawrence University, Canton, N.Y., a former pastor, thus speaks of her: —

"Mrs. Robinson has been for many years prominently associated with the First Universalist Church of Worcester, Mass. She has held the position of president of the Ladies' Social Circle, one of the largest and oldest organizations of the church. The position called for many and varied duties, all of which she dis- charged with marked ability. Possessing great dignity of manner, she presided over the meetings of the organization with grace and force, fulfilling the manifold executive functions of the place with great skill and tact. A forceful and graceful speaker, she was conciliatory in manner, and had great energy in pushing to completion her various plans. Mrs. Robinson has never permitted her public work to interfere with or mar her administration of her home. Her husband and children mingle admiration with their affection, for she has ever been .solicitous in looking after their welfare. The home has been the place to which the children have ever returned with pleasure, and the wife and mother has omitted no duty. One of her daughters is a student at St. Lawrence University."

Of her experience in relief work, Mrs. Robinson says: "I have taken pleasure in giving my time, means, and efforts to this work. It is a great education in many ways, and has assisted me in a knowledge of how to bring up my children, which, for all this outside work, I have done, having never in any way neglected their education or good health. I believe a mother should mingle with the world and take an interest in matters outside the home, in order to be capable of teaching her children as they should be taught. A mother is—or should he—a teacher through her entire life to her children."

Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have six children, namely: George K., born February 11, 1864; Angle 'M. (now Mrs. Ewen), born May 19, 1867; William L., Jr., born August 25, 1871; Harry C, born April 7, 1873; M. Beatrice, born April 29, 1880; Sarah Isabel E., born December 21, 1881. All were born in Worcester except the eldest daughter, whose birthplace is Cambridgeport, Mass. The three sons are prosperous business men, and Harry C. is also prominent in musical circles.


ELLEN MARIA FOGG was born in Salem, Mass., in 1828, diuighter of Stephen and Lucinda (Goldthwait) Fogg. From the age of four 3'ears to that of thirteen the sul:iject of this sketch was a pupil at a young ladies' school. From that time until reaching the age of sixteen she attended a school kept by Henry K. Oliver, a teacher of high rank and for many years an esteemed public official (sometime Adjutant-general of Massachusetts militia and later State Treasurer). Miss Fogg excelled in her studies, particularly in mathematics and astronomy. Her proficiency in these branches is evidenced by the fact that when her teacher requested