Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/451

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446
LAMSON.
LANCE.

lawyer of note, who died in 1876. Her mother, Caroline Francis Brayton Lamson, was a woman of culture and died at an early age, leaving three children, Lucy S., Hattie B. and William Ford. Miss Lamson was educated in a private school and in the public schools of Albany. LUCY STEDMAN LAWSON. She was a student of the Albany high school for one year and attended the Adams Collegiate Institute, Adams, N. Y., four years, where she was graduated in 1874. Since that time she has taught in the public schools of Adams, Cape Vincent, Albany and Brooklyn, N. Y., and Tacoma, Wash. In 1886 she was graduated from the State Normal School in Albany, N. Y., and in the following year she studied with special teachers in New York City. In September, 1888, she accepted a position in the Annie Wright Seminary, Tacoma, Wash. During 18S8 and 1889 much excitement prevailed in regard to land speculations, and Miss Lamson, not being in possession of funds, borrowed them and purchased city lots, which she sold at a profit. In March, 1889, she filed a timber claim and a pre-emption in Skamania county, Wash., and in June, in the beginning of the summer vacation, she moved her household goods to her pre-emption, and, accompanied by a young Norwegian woman, commenced the six months' residence required by the government to obtain the title to the land. The claim was situated nine miles above Cape Horn. Washougal river, a branch of the Columbia. Having complied with the law and gained possession of the timber claim and pre-emption. Miss Lamson sold both at an advantage and invested the proceeds in real estate. In September, 1890, she accepted a position in the Tacoma high school. She has charge of one-hundred sixty pupils in vocal music, elocution and physical culture, and instructs the city teachers, one-hundred-ten in all, in music and gymnastics. In the fall of 1890 she built a small house in the northern part of the town, which she makes her home.


LANGE, Mrs. Mary T., journalist, born in Boston. Mass., 25th September, 1848. Her maiden name was Nash. She is of French-Irish descent on the maternal side and Puritan on the paternal. MARY T. LANGE. She lost her mother at the age of fourteen and two years later her father was Killed in the battle of Winchester, in Virginia. Her early education was obtained in the public schools, but, later, she attended the school of Dr. Arnold, in Boston, and it was through that distinguished French scholar that she was induced to make her first venture in literature. Her first publication was a short story, entitled "Uncle Ben's Courtship." which appeared in the Boston "Wide World," in 1865. A year later, in company with her brother and sister, she sailed for Europe. for the purpose of studying the languages and music, remaining three years in Italy for the latter purpose. After five years' study and travel from France to Egypt, she found herself in Ems, the famous watering-place, when war was declared with France. She immediately proceeded to Paris, to join her brother who was attending school in that city, and remained with him through that memorable siege, witnessing all the horrors of the Commune. During that time, she was not idle, but, acted as correspondent for the New York "Herald," and her letters attracted wide-spread attention The siege lasted five mouths and during that time Miss Nash and her young brother suffered many privations. While the Palace of the Tuilleries was burning, she secured many private, imperial documents, being allowed to pass the Commune Guards, by reason of a red cloak which she constantly wore during the Commune and which they would salute, saying: "Passez Citoyenne!" At that time she contracted a romantic and unhappy marriage, but was free in less than a year. She returned, in 1877, to America, where she became the wife, in 1878, of H. Julius Lange the son of the distinguished lawyer, Ludwig Lange, of