Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/389

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288
REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND

they were more advanced in literature than pupils from similar schools. She had the rare ability of telling pupils just enough to awaken in them the desire to read every author she touched upon. This ability, she often says, was inherited from her mother, who was an excellent raconteur, and who inspired her with a love for the best in the world of books. Miss Roache is a poet of no mean al)ility, having written verses for many public occasions, among them the hynm sung at the laying of the corner-stone of the Lynn High School, and the poem called " The Story of the Okl Elm Tree," written for the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town of Danvers.

Perhaps no better estimate of her character and work can be made than the following, written by a co-worker in the Lynn High School, who has been able to trace her influence in the lives of many that came under her instruction during a period of nearly forty years:—

"In the summer of 1881 I first became acquainted with Miss Josephine Roache. At that time she was an assistant in the Lynn High School; and for ten years thereafter, in one capacity or another, I was associated with her in- the work of that school, and learned to know and value her excellent qualities as teacher and woman.

"Her special department was English literature: and she certainly was possessed of remarkable power to interest the young people, perhaps more especially girls, in that subject. Her methods evidenced a conviction on her part that the way to teach English literature to pupils enough advanced to be in high school .should by no means be limited to a dissection and critical analysis of the sentences, or even of the entire composition. One saw at once that it was her higher aim to make the pupils' hearts and souls respond to the author's thought. Her low, soft, well-modulated voice bespoke the perfect self-control; and she .scorned to govern her classes by means inconsistent with a self-respecting and dignified womanly character. "At the time Miss Roache left the high school, the English department suffered a blow from which it has never wholly recovered.

"Outside of her school, in the every-day affairs of life, she was altogether prone to espouse the cause of the suffering and oppressed. She was an ardent advocate of Home Rule for Ireland, and never missed an opportunity by tongue or pen to advance it. I think majority opinions had little weight with her, except as they commended themselves to her heail and heart. She believed that Edward B(>llainy's theories are in the right direction, and she was an active member of the Nationalist Club of Lynn, formed in the eighties, associating in the work with such men and women as Dr. Benjamin Percival, Hannah M. Todd, CJeorge H. Carey, Dr. Esther H. Hawkes, and Herman Kemp.

"Miss Roache is scholarly, but to an extent that I have never seen surpassed she preserves the well-springs of human nature from drovight that culture so frequently induces. She is a scholar indeed; but she never forgets that her first duty is to humanity as a whole, and not to any particular clique or class."


EVELYN TUCK COOK, a Past Department President of the Woman's Relief Cor]is of Massachusptts, was born in Manchester, Mass., June 26, 1849, daughter of Captain Charles and Sophia (Lendall) Leach. Her father, who commanded the bark "Marguerite." died in March, 1852, on the voyage from South America to Boston, Mass. Evelyn was then in her third year. She was educated in the public schools of her native town. On February 24, 1869, .she was married to Colonel Benjamin Franklin Cook, of Gloucester, Mass., son of Captain Jeremiah Cook and his wife, Harriet Tarr, who was daughter of Captain Jabez Tarr, of Bunker Hill fame. For more than thirty years Mrs. Cook has been engaged in work for the Grand Army of the Republic. She was a charter member of Clara Barton Lodge, formed May 13, 1870, as an auxiliary to Colonel Allen Post, G. A. R., of Gloucester. She was elected its first Treasurer, and then served as President six consecutive terms. hen Colonel Allen Relief Corps