Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/530

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REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND
397

complication of nervous maladies, and doubtless "learned in suffering what she taught in song."

Her endowments are found in alliance with a masculine understanding and finely adjusted ethical and religious qualities. She is a member of the Baptist church, and lives an active Christian life; and one of her best rewards for publishing a volume of poetry has been the letters she has received acknowledging the help and comfort derived from some of the poems which seemed to voice the sentiment of the sufferer. Mrs. Moore is exceedingly interested in all questions of theology and religion, acquainted with the discussion of "the higher criticism," well read in science and philosophy, in which she thinks profoundly and reasons acutely. Should future health and leisure be granted her, with a disposition to write again for publication, I should rather expect from her pen something in the line of religious life and experience, or an examination of some subject m philosophy, or some application of a new scientific fact to life and conduct, than more in the line of poetry and fiction. I add a sonnet from "Songs of Sunshine and Shadow," addressed to C. E. S., almost perfect in form and rich in suggestion:

"If thou, dear one, wert far away from me,
And continents lay between, or oceans wide.
When lone I knelt to j^ray at eventide,
First on my lips would be my prayer for thee.
And all the distance would as nothing be
To swift-winged blessings that to thee would glide.
Thou hast gone from me, and the grave doth hide
Thee in a shadow wider than the wide sea;
Yet, when I kneel at morn or eve to pray,
Shall I not pray for thee? Ne'er can come
A day I do not love thee: must I say
No word of love? Thou livest, dear, somewhere.
Whv, if the dead are deaf, must we be dumb?"

x.


ELVIRA ANNA TIBBETTS, of South Boston, an officer in the Ladies' Aid Association of the Soldiers' Home in Massachusetts and for two years a director in the Woman's Charity Club, was born in Foxboro, Mass., May 26, 1847, daughter of Luther Richmond and Almina Miranda (Twitchell) Grover.

Her father was born November 10, 1825, in Taunton, Mass., where her grandfather, Luther Grover, settled when a young man. Luther was the youngest son of Amasa and Olive (Paine) Grover. Amasa Grover was born in 1760. When seventeen years of age, he enlisted from Mansfield as a soldier in the Revolutionary army, serving until August 5, 1781. He was an early settler of Foxboro, where he purchased a tract of unbroken land and established a homestead. The house is in South Foxboro, on the old road that leads from Taunton to Worcester, and is in a good state of preservation. Amasa Grover died in 1805. His wife, Olive Paine, was born in 1764 and died in 1844. They had a large family of children.

Mrs. Tibbetts's paternal grandfather, Luther Grover, was a well-known blacksmith, and was successfully engaged in manufacturing until he retired from business at the age of seventy. He lived to be fourscore years, and his last days were spent in Boston. He married in Norton, Mass., Anna Williams Caswell, a native of Taunton and daughter of Alvin Caswell.

Luther Richmond Grover, father of Mrs. Tibbetts, obtained his education in district schools of Springfield, Newton Upper Falls, and Foxboro, Mass. He was a skilled workman, but was obliged to give up an excellent position on account of impaired eyesight. For the past fifty years he has been engaged in farming, and has conducted an extensive and profitable business. He was married May 27, 1846, in Dover, Mass., to Almina Miranda Twitchell, and settled on the large and pleasant estate in Foxboro where he has lived for fifty-seven years.

A great-grandfather of Mrs. Tibbetts on her mother's side was John Cheever, who was born in Wrentham, Mass., in 1772, son of James and Sarah (Shepard) Cheever. John Cheever married Dolly ^^^leeler, of Marlboro, N.H., who was a daughter of David and Rebecca (Hoar) Wheeler. David Wheeler, her father, was Town Clerk of Marlboro during the Revolutionary War, and was a useful and highly esteemed citizen, as is fully attested by the numerous offices conferred upon him.