Bereft of a mother's loving care at the age of six years, Dora Basconi early learned lessons of self-reliance and of unselfishness and usefulness to those around her. She was educated al
Townsend Female Seminary, and at the age of sixteen she entered her father's counting-room, where she filled the position of hook-
keeper and confidential clerk until her mar-
riage. To that period, with its varied ex-
periences, she is indebted for her broad and
practical views of life. It is a mistaken idea
that business development in woman blunts
her finer sensibilities: the opposite is the truth.
Like a ))lant whose blossoms are cut freely,
human nature repays in richness and fruitful-
ness for all drafts properly made on its re-
sources; and a woman who has become |)unc-
tilious in business detail has learned to solve
many problems in profit and loss, eciuity, jus-
tice, that must be encountered and .wived in
the same punctilious way in daily life. Dora
Bascom, while in her father's business office,
came in contact with many people, and her
philanthropic spirit early manifested itself in
kindly ministrations to the poor and sick of
the village. When the Civil War broke out,
and the Sanitary Commission was formed in
June, 1861, she joined the ranks of devoted
patriotic women, and worked early and late
for relief of the "boy's in blue."
She was married November 27, 1862, to Samuel Garfield Smith, a well-known watchmaker of Boston. Two children, Kate Auzella and Dexter Munroe, blessed this happy union. Kate Auzella Smith was married April 23, 1889, to Charles Sunmer Waterhouse. They live in Brookline, Mass., and have one child, a daughter named Irma. Mrs. Waterhouse is a well-known whist teacher.
Dexter Munroe Smith, broker, was for fifteen years in the employ of F. H. Prince & Co., Boston. He married December 19, 1894, Anna Cogswell, of Ipswich, Mass., where they now reside. They have two children, Helen C. and Julian D.
Mrs. Smith was one of the earliest members of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union of Boston, and for many years served on important committees. She was influential in agitating the question of the placing of ma- trons in the police ;?i.ations. She was a charter member of the New Eilgland Helping Hand Society and was on its Board of Government for several years. This opened to her numerous opportunities for quiet, unostentatious charity. Many a wronged girl has reason to bless her for pecuniary help as well as kindly sympathy. She was on one of the committees of the fair for Mrs. Charpiot's Home for Intemperate Women, by which thirteen thousand dollars was raised. These committees conceived the idea of forming the Woman's Charity Club of Boston. Mrs. Smith was one of the organizers thereof and its first hospital treasurer, holding the position five years, until obliged to resign by a protracted illness. She served for six years as first vice-president of the club. Of the Ladies' Physiological Institute of Boston, said to be the oldest women's organi- zation in America, she has been the first vice- president for twenty-one years. The object of the Institute is to bring within the reach of women, by open lecture platform, in a simple way, such medical, hygienic, and physiological instruction as shall lead, by interesting them, to deeper study and usefuhiess reganling the health and welfare of those in their keeping. Some of its charter members who lived to a ripe old age were bitterly opposed to woman suffrage, and the question was debarred from its platform and discussions for many years. As the membership gradually included the modern woman with advanced ideas, the spirit of harmony between the elders and the later members is evidence of the wisdom, judgment, and tact of its official incumbents. Mrs. Smith still holds the position of first vice-president, fre<|uently occupying the chair. None of her rulings are ever questioned, and a Boston daily paper says of her, "She is a thorough parlia- mentarian, and no possible tangle or mix-up in a meeting can faze her."
Mrs. Smith is also connected with the Woman's Relief Corps and with the Eastern Stcar, a Masonic association. Becoming much interested in the woman's suffrage movement after hearing in the seventies the strong, earnest words of JuHa Ward Howe and Lucy Stone on the subject, she innuediately joined the ranks, and labored in the cause with untiring zeal.
