Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/331

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298
Part Taken by Women in American History


of the work. So correct were her observations, from their home on Brooklyn Heights, that he was able to write out instructions and plan for the work of the assisting engineers and laboring force. Armed with these drawings, the faithful wife could be seen daily wending her way to the engineers and workmen, explaining to them explicitly and intelligently Colonel Roebling's directions. Few women have ever had higher tribute paid them than was given to Mrs. Roebling, when Honorable Abram S. Hewitt, the orator of the day, on the occasion of the opening of the bridge, in eloquent terms connected the name of Mrs. Roebling with that of Colonel Roebling as deserving equal share in his unparalleled achievement. That the name of her revered brother, Gouverneur Kemble Warren, should not be forgotten, she caused to be erected a magnificent bronze statue to his memory, on Little Round Top, on the Battlefield of Gettysburg. After Colonel and Mrs. Roebling's removal to Trenton, New Jersey, where she spent the last years of her life, she busied herself in assisting Colonel Roebling in arranging a wonderful collection of books, curios, gems and mineralogical specimens and in interesting herself in social, political, philanthropic and patriotic work. She traveled extensively and was presented, in 1896, to Queen Victoria in London and subsequently, at court, in Russia. On her return from this trip, which she made in company with Mrs. John A. Logan, she gave a most interesting illustrated lecture on, "What an American Woman Saw at the Coronation of Nicholas the Second." The proceeds of this she gave to charity. In 1898 she was among the most active members of the Relief Society which did such noble work during the Spanish War, giving her money, time and strength to the hospital work of this association. She was a graduate from the Law School of the New York University in 1899, the subject of her graduating essay being "The Wife's Disabilities." She was chosen as the essayist of her class and had previously won the prize for the best essay written by any member of her class. She was active in the work of the Daughters of the American Revolution, at one time vice-president-general of that organization, and one of the most important and able members of this great woman's organization. She represented the women of New Jersey on the Board of Lady Managers at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Mrs. Roebling was the first vice-president of the Society of Colonial Dames, and a member of the Colonial Daughters of the seventeenth century, Holland Dames of America, the Huguenot Society, honorary official of the George Washington Memorial Association, a member of the Woman's Branch of the New Jersey Historical Society, the New York Historical Society, the Virginia Society for the Preservation of Historical objects and places, the Revolutionary Memorial Society of New Jersey, the Woman's Law Class of the New York University, an officer of the New York State Federation of Clubs and at one time president of the Georgetown Visitation Academy Alumnae Association. Her literary attainments were of the highest order. Her articles which appeared in the Brooklyn papers in 1882 and 1883, in defense of Colonel Roebling's methods in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, were so able that they completely routed his enemies, men who had conspired to defraud him of the glory she had helped him to win in the successful completion of that structure.

Her biography of Colonel Roebling, contributions to the press on philan-