Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/308

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303
FRÉMONT.
FRENCH.

world as the "Great Path Finder," and a "Grateful Republic" recognized his services. In 1849 he settled in California and was elected senator for that State. He received in 1856 the first nomination ever made by the Republican party for president. His wife was a prominent factor in that campaign. A major-general's commission was conferred in 1862, but General Fremont was more famous as explorer than as statesman or general. In 1878 he was appointed Governor of Arizona, where both he and Mrs. Fremont were very popular. Then closed the long and honorable public life of the Pioneer of the Pacific. In all these public positions Mrs. Fremont won renown in her own right. As a writer she is brilliant, concise and at all times interesting. Her extensive acquaintance with the brightest intellects of the world enabled her to enter the field of literature fully equipped, and since the death of Gen. Fremont she finds pleasure in her pen. The memoirs of Mrs. Fremont will find a large circle of readers. She is now a resident of Los Angeles, Cal., and lives with her daughter Congress has recognized the services of "The Great Explorer" and given his widow a pension of two-thousand dollars per annum. Her published books are "Story of the Guard, a Chronicle of the War," with a German translation (Boston, 18^5), a sketch of her father, Thomas H. Benton, prefixed to her husband's memoirs (1886), and "Souvenirs of my Time" (Boston, 1887). She is passing her days in quiet retirement.


FRENCH. Miss Alice, novelist, born in Andover, Mass., 19th March, 1850. She is widely known by her pen-name, "Octave Thanet." She has lived in the West and South for many years. ALICE FRENCH. On both sides she is a descendant of the Puritans. She has Mayflower people and Revolutionary heroes, witch-hangers and modern rulers of Massachusetts among her ancestors, as well as godly ministers not a few, so that, as she has two centuries of unadulterated New England behind her, as she was educated there and goes there every summer, while she lives in the West and spends her winters in the South, she is so much of a composite that she says she hesitates to place herself. Two of her brothers were educated abroad, and one of them married one of the Irish Hamiltons. Her father was a manufacturer of agricultural implements. He was a loyal westerner, but he never lost his fondness for the Fast, going there regularly every summer. He was much more than a business man, being an enthusiastic lover of books and a connoisseur in the fine arts. Miss French began to write shortly after she was graduated from Abbot Academy, Andover, Mass. The editors gave her the good advice to wait, and she waited several years, when she sent "A Communist's Wife" to the the Harpers, who declined it, and she sent it to the Lippincotts, who accepted it. Since that time she has always found a place for her works. The criticisms that editors offer she has found very valuable. Among her published works are " Knitters in the Sun" (Boston, 1887); "Otto the Knight" (Boston); "Expiation" (New York, 1890), and "We All" (New York). She has also edited "The Best Letters of Lady Mary Montagu" (Chicago). She is very fond of the Gallic models of Style. She is interested in historical studies and the German philosophers. She likes all out-of-door sports and declares that she is a great deal better cook than a writer. It is a delight to her to arrange a dinner. She has a fad for collecting china. In politics she is a Democrat, a moderate free-trader and a firm believer in honest money. Miss French has a deep interest in English history and a great affection for England. She pursued her studies assiduously, going to original sources for her pictures of by-gone times, and finding the most inspiration in the period which saw the rise of our present industrial system, the reign of Henry VIII and his children. Her pen-name was the result of chance. "Octave" was the name of her room-mate at school, and had the advantage of being suited to either sex. The word "Thanet" she saw written or printed on a passing freight-car. She prefers the Scotch to the French pronunciation of the word, although she regrets ever having used a pen-name.


FRISBY, Miss Almah J., physician, born in West Bend. Wis., 8th July. 1857. Her father was Hon. Leander F. Frisby, a law yer and at one time Attorney-General of the State of Wisconsin. Her mother's maiden name was Frances E. Rooker. They were originally from Ohio and New York. Almah Frisby was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1878, receiving the decree of B.S., and from the Boston University School of Medicine, in 1883, with the degree of M. D. She then located in Milwaukee, Wis., and took up active practice, in which she was very successful. In the winter of 1886-97 she was resilient physician in charge of the Women's Homeopathic Hospital, Philadelphia,. Pa. In the summer of 1887 she was homeopathic resident physician of the Hotel Kaaterskill in the Catskill mountains, after which she returned to Milwaukee and resumed local practice. Possessing keen insight, medical skill and deep womanly sympathy, she won in that city a large circle of friends in all walks of life. More especially did she interest herself in the dependent classes generally, who missed a valued benefactor when she was called to a chair in the University of Wisconsin and changed her field of labor. She is now preceptress of Indies' Hall and professor of hygiene and sanitary science. Hundreds of young women yearly under her influence are enriched by her