Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/273

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
206
REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND

looked-for response to the love for the women of India.

In 1886, at the railway station in Madura, when she was leaving the country, a Brahmin gentleman, followed by a servant bearing a large brass tray, made his way through the crowd, and, coming to the window of the car where Mrs. Capron was sitting, asked her to come to the platform. Placing an enormous wreath of buds of the white jessamine with touches of pink oleander u))on her shoulders, he said, "I bring to you this as a token of the regard of our families for what you have done for the women of our city."

Not to be ministered unto but to minister, to be enshrined in the lives of many, a memory which neither time nor distance can touch, is ever the sphere attainable by all who seek it. Arriving in America, Mrs. Capron found her time fully taken in addresses upon India and its people and its needs. Articles written for publication and Bible study with resultant class work also had their share of attention. In 1889 Mr. D. L. Moody, about to open in Chicago the Moody Bible Institute, a training- school for home and foreign missions, asked Mrs. Capron to become superintendent of the women's department. When she questioned her fitness for the position, " It is the experience of life that I want," was his reply. The results from his far-sighted plan have verified his expectations: many young men have received that which was available in no other way. Young women who were desiring to enter church and city work were trained to know how sympathetically and tactfully to find their way into the homes and hearts of those who were weighted with the burdens of poverty and drunkenness, and by gracious and loving words to kindle hope and courage. Candidates for foreign missionary work and ladies at home on furlough from foreign fields found that which was valuable for the future. Grateful expressions of conmendation are coming from all over the world and from ministers and superintendents in this country, where the services of these trained workers have proved of value.

Mrs. Capron resigned her position in Chicago in 1894, and has since resided in Boston with her sister, Mrs. Arthur W. Tufts. Her children are: Annie Hooker Capron, now Mrs. Lewis Kennedy Morse, of Boston, Mass.; and Laura Elisabeth Capron, now Mrs. James Dyer Keith, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Mr. and Mrs. Morse have two children: Anna Hooker, born April 5, 1899; and Arthur Webster, born March 9, 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Keith have two children: James Monroe, born March 7, 1893; and Annie Hooker, born June 29, 1895.


JULIA HAMILTON, now, in 1904, serving in her fifth vear as President of Woman's Relief Corps, No. 82, of Athol, is a native of the Isle of Wight. The daughter of Jacob and Mary Wilkins, she was born at Knighton, near Osborne House, August 25, 1845. To escape the shadow of financial misfortune, her parents, in her early childhood, came to America, and settled in Westminster, Vi., where she attended the public schools and academy. At the age of thirteen she became a member of the family of the Rev. Andrew B. Foster, with whom she lived until her marriage, the Foster home being successively in Westminster, 't., and Bernardston and Orange, Mass. Possessing naturally a considerable talent for music, it was the great desire of ,Julia Wilkins to become an accomplished singer, but her opportunities for instruction were limited. Such as she had were well improved. For many years her voice was in constant demand for service in the church and on social occasions. Both at Westminster and Bernardston, Miss Wilkins was active in work for soldiers of the Civil War, the incidents and impressions of which furnished much inspiration for later years. Mr. Foster becoming pastor of a church in Orange in 1865, Miss Wilkins at once entered the church and social circles there, winning, as in all her previous life, a host of friends. In Orange she assisted in the welcoming home of the war veterans of the town. On October 22, 1867, she was married l>y the Rev. Mr. Foster, at the Congregational parsonage in Orange, to Andrew J. Hamilton, then a resident of Hinsdale, N.H. After a short residence in Hinsdale, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton,