her service as president of the Civic Club, which vk^as founded in May, 1898, by Mrs. Etta H. Osgood. Its object is "to promote by education and active co-operation a higher pubiic life and a better social order." One of its principles is a belief in the trinity of health—pure food, pure air, and pure water. The watchword of the club is, "Duties assigned cheerfully assumed." Applications for membership are carefully considered, and only those who are willing to perform some service in behalf of its objects are welcomed as members.
The club has laid out playgrounds at the North School in Portland, has been instrumental in procuring the ordinance prohibiting expectoration, and secured the placing of rubbish buckets on the streets. It has also secured an appropriation for public baths and for milk inspection. Its power for good is appreciated by the citizens of Portland, and its valuable work will receive their earnest support.
When, several years ago, Professor Chapman was making strenuous efforts to establish the Maine .Musical Festival, Mrs. Booth))y entered heartily into his plans. At a time when failure seemed inevitable, she was one of the stanch supporters of this project, which has given to the State such rare musical privileges.
Mrs. Boothby's private charities are legion and unknown. As the wife of the Mayor she extends cordial good will and ready welcome to all. As an officer of various organizations she is faithful and efficient. As a citizen .she is valued for her generous sympathies and for her support of all matters of public interest.
When a citizen of Maine said, "I am sure Portland is written on the hearts of Mayor Boothby and his wife, they have always so labored for the good of the city," he expressed a .sentiment that is endorsed by all good people within its borders.
MARY PARKS PUTNAM, M.D., was born April 28, 1841, in Charlestown, N.H., known at the time of its settlement as Township No. 4. She is the eldest of the three daughters of the late David Whipple and Jane (Ellison) Parks, and is of English descent. The ancestral kin on the paternal side includes physicians, lawyers, and teachers, beside several persons who were highly skilled in trades. Her father was a soldier of the Civil War in the sixties of the nineteenth century, and did his full share toward the preservation of the Union.
Having an inherent love for study and investigation. Dr. Putnam's professional career was early foreshadowed. When barely fifteen years of age she became a teacher under the old district-school system in her native town and its vicinity. Such was her success that her services were in constant demand, and she made the record of fifty-three consecutive terms in the same school-room. While pursuing this vocation, she began the study of medicine, reading extensively by herself and then taking a three years' course in a school well-known at that time. Later entering the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Boston, she devoted three more years to study, and was graduated at the age of fifty-three. She immediately opened her office in one of the best residential districts of Boston, where her practice has steadily increased and become firmly established.
Doctor Putnam has always been ready to extend a helping hand to young women and girls. To one she gave the protection of her home and the same education and liberal training that she bestowed upon her own daughter, and to many another has she given encouragement and opportunity to gain higher education and development. She is interested in training-schools for nurses in Boston and elsewhere, also in numerous philanthropic, educational, and charitable movements. Needless to say, she has a large circle of friends. In the progress of modern science she keeps well posted, particularly on all lines relating to her chosen work.
She married during her .service as school-teacher Mr. Wesley D. Putnam, of her native town. For many years Mr. Putnam has been connected with one of the leading manufacturing houses in Massachusetts. He has always given his hearty sympathy and encouragement to his wife in the attainment of her professional ambition, and their home on Commonwealth Avenue has been a happy one, its sole shadow having been the death of their only child, a
