Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/662

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SIGOURNEY.
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literary labor was only a part of her work. She was active in charity and philanthropy, and she had many pensioners. In 1840 she visited Europe, and in 1842 she described her journey in "Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands." While in London, Eng. she published two volumes of poetry. Her best works are: "Traits of the Aborigines of America." a poem (1822); "Sketch of Connecticut Forty Years Since" (1824); "Letters to Young Ladies" (1833. twentieth American and fifth English edition in 1853); "Letters to Mothers" (1838, with several English editions); "Pocahontas, and other Poems" (1841); "Scenes in My Native Land" (1844); "Voice of Flowers" (1845), "Weeping Willow" (1846); "Water Drops" (1847); "Whisper to a Bride" (1849); "Letters to My Pupils" (1850); "Olive Leaves" (1851}; "The Faded Hope," a memorial of her only son, who died at the age of nineteen years (1852); "Past Meridian" (1854); "Lucy Howard's Journal" (1857); "The Daily Counselor" (1858); "Gleanings, poetry (1860), and "The Man of Uz, and other Poems" (1862). Her whole married life, with the exception of the time she spent in Europe, was passed in Hartford.


SILLER, Miss Hilda, poet, born in Dubuque, Iowa. 7th August, 1861. Her father is Frank Siller, of Milwaukee, Wis., who is known as "the German poet." but who emigrated to America from St. Petersburg, Russia, when a boy of fifteen. HILDA SILLER. Her mother's maiden name was Sarah Baldwin. She was an English woman. Hilda Siller has inherited from her parents a love of literature and art. She excels the average amateur musician in the same degree that she excels the average local poet. She wrote for " Our Continent" in its palmiest days, later for the Springfield " Republican," Boston "Transcript," New York "Post," Chicago "Inter- Ocean," "The South." St. Louis "Globe- Democrat" and for Wisconsin papers generally. She studied music with the best teachers abroad as well as in Milwaukee, and the works of Chopin and Beethoven found in her a skilled and sympathetic interpreter. She has written some very good stories. The fact that father and daughter are both poets and both possess conspicuous German traits gives them a sort of unified personality. No sketch of one seems complete without more than passing mention of the other, both having striking artistic temperaments, and the same appreciation of humor, though the latter does not show itself in their poetic writings. On the contrary, the poems of Frank and Hilda Siller are alike distinguished for their pathos. They have been widely translated from English into German and extensively copied in German periodicals.


SIMPSON, Mrs. Corelli C. W., poet. born in Taunton, Mass., 20th February, 1837. She is one of a pair of twin daughters. Her father was Capt. Francis Dighton Williams. Her parents were of New England stock on both sides. Her mother was Corelli Caswell, whose father, Cyrus Caswell, a lover of music, gave to his daughter the Italian name of Corelli, from an air he was fond of playing on his violin. CARELLI C. W. SIMPSON. She handed it down by giving to her twin daughters the names Corelli and Salome. So much alike were these little sisters, that they were distinguished by their pink and blue ribbons, and in nuturer life the resemblance is still remarkable. Corelli C. Williams was thoroughly educated in both public and private schools, chiefly in the Bristol academy, the Taunton high school and the Salisbury mission school, in Worcester, Mass. She went to Bangor, Me., in March, 1863, to visit her sister, Mrs. S. C. Hatch. She opened the first kindergarten in that city, in 1864, becoming at once very popular. Mr. A. L. Simpson, a member of the Penobscot bar, at that time a widower, who led his daughter Gertrude daily to the kindergarten teacher, perceived her rare qualities and asked her to preside over his home-garden.