Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/181

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176
CLAPLIN.
CLARK.

of Boston, in 1870, a man of keen and thoughtful mind and generous and kindly spirit They have for many years resided in Quincy, Mass., and have a son and three daughters. In 1883 Mrs. ADELAIDE AVERY CLAFLIN. Claflin began to speak in public as an advocate of woman suffrage. In 1884 she was elected a member of the Quincy school committee, and served three years in that position, being the only woman who ever held office in that conservative town. Although too much occupied with family cares to take a very active part in public life, her pen is busied in writing for the Boston papers, and she finds opportunity to give lectures, and has occasionally been on short lecturing tours outside of the limits of New England. Best known as a woman suffragist, she writes and speaks on various other topics, and her wide range of reading and thinking makes it probable that her future career as a lecturer will not be limited chiefly to the woman suffrage field.


FRANCES PARKER CLARK. CLARK, Mrs. Frances P., philanthropist, born in Syracuse, N. Y., 17th September, 1836. She was one of a family of seven children born to Dr. J. H. and Mary P. Parker, who were persons of fine character. Miss Parker was educated in Syracuse, and in November, 1858, became the wife of George W. Clark. In i860 they moved to Cleveland, Ohio, remaining there until 1883, when they removed to Omaha, Neb., where they have since lived. Their family consists of a daughter and son. After recovering from an apparently incurable disease of long standing, Mrs. Clark, in a spirit of gratitude to God, devoted herself to charitable work, taking up the work most needed to be done and most neglected, as she felt, by Christians, that of care for the so-called outcasts of society. In 1884, in recognition of her ability and services, she was appointed State superintendent of the social purity department of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Nebraska. As a result of the agitation begun by Mrs. Clark and her colleagues, the disgraceful statute making the age of consent twelve years was changed by the Legislature, in 1887, raising it to fifteen years. The women had prepared a bill making the limit eighteen years, and the result was a compromise. At the same time they petitioned the Legislature for a grant of 125,000, to be used in establishing an industrial home in Milford, Neb. That institution accordingly was founded at once, and through the happy results since flowing therefrom has fully met the expectations of its founders. Mrs. Clark is a member of the board of management of the Milford home, and also of the Woman's Associate Charities of the State of Nebraska, under appointment by the Governor. Besides this, she is the superintendent of a local institution for the same purpose in Omaha, known as "The Open Door." under the auspices of the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union. That institution is supported by subscriptions from the citizens of Omaha. With all these calls upon her time, Mrs. Clark is busy constantly, and she stands in the foremost rank among the women philanthropists of Nebraska.


CLARK, Mrs. Helen Taggart, journalist, born in Northumberland, Pa., 24th April, 1849. She is the oldest of three children of the late Col. David Taggart and Annie Pleasants Taggart. She was educated in the Friends' central high school, in Philadelphia, Pa. In October, 1869, she made a six months' stay in Charleston, S. C, whither she went to make a visit to her father, then stationed in that city as paymaster in the United States army. Miss Taggart became the wife in 1870 of Rev. David H. Clark, a Unitarian minister settled over the church in Northumberland. Four years later they removed to New Milford, Pa., to take charge of a Free Religious Society there. In 1875 Mr. Clark was called to the Free Congregational Society in Florence, Mass. Attention was first drawn to "H. T. C ," by which some of her earlier work was