Representative women of New England/Rose M. Posse
BARONESS ROSE POSSE, director of the Posse Gymnasium, Boston, is successfully carrying on the work begin by her late husband. Baron Posse. Her maiden name was Rose Moore Smith. Born in Newburyport, Mass., the daughter of Foster W. and Catherine M. (Ballou) Smith, she is descended from good old English stock, which, we are told, has been traced back to the time of Cromwell. Her paternal grand- father, Foster Smith, who married Jane Ger rish, was a merchant in Newburyport, Mass. He was bom in Thornton, N.H., in 1791, a son of Stephen and Betsy (Gerrish) Smith. The Gerrish family, to which his mother and his wife belonged, was founded by Captain William' Gerrish, who came to Newbury, Mass., with Percival Lowle (Lowell). Stephen Smith, father of Foster, was a soldier of the Revolu- tion. His name is on the Revolutionary Rolls of New Hampshire.
Baroness Posse's maternal grandparents were John and Catherine (Moore) Ballou (name legally changed from Bullough), the grand- mother belonging to the Moore family of Sud- bury, Mass., dating from early colonial times. John Ballou was son of Joseph and Abigail (Symmes) Bullough, of Newton, Mass. Joseph Bullough is spoken of in Vinton's "Symmes Memorial" as "a native of England and a man of large property." Abigail Symmes, whom he married in 1774 (Mnton), was daughter of Zechariah^ Synnnes, of Charlcstown. Her father was son of the Rev. Thomas' Symmes and great-grandson of the Rev. Zechariah' Symmes (a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge University), who came to New England in 1634, and was for many years pastor of the church in Charlestown.
Rose M. Smith was educated in the Newburyport public schools and at the State Normal School in Salem. After her graduation she taught Latin and French in a fashionable private school in Philadelphia until her marriage. Possessing an excellent contralto voice, she gave much time to music, and studied under leading teachers in this country and abroad. While in Philadelphia she sang in one of the church choirs, and after removing to Boston sang in one of the churches until 1900. During the summer of 1885 she travelled in Europe for pleasure, and it was in England that she first met Baron Posse, who was on his way to Amer- ica. The friendship then begun was continued in this country, and in 1887 they were married and settled in Boston.
Baron Nils Posse, K.G.V., M.G., born in Stockholm in 1862, came of a noble Swedish family whose history dates l^ack fully one thousand years. His father was Baron Knut Henrik Posse, K.S., Governor of the Artillery and Engineering School of the Swedish army and Major of the First Field Artillery. His mother was Lady Sophia Lilliestrole, of an- cient Swedish nobility. In 1880 he was grad- uated from a Swedish college with a degree equiv- alent to Bachelor of Science in America, and fourteen months later was graduated with high honors from the Military Academy. Brevetted by the King as a Lieutenant in the Life Grena- diers in 1881, he was transferred to the Field Artillery with the same rank in 1883. While in the army he took his first yearly course at the Royal Gynmastic Central Institute, com- pleting his training at the expiration of his military service, and receiving his diploma in 1885. In 1884 he was assistant in the Medico- Gymnastic Department of the Institute, also an instructor in the Stockholm Gymnastic and Fencing Club; and from 1881 to 1885 he was an active member in the Stockholm Gymnastic Association, the leading organization of its kind in that country. Before he left Sweden he was an instructor in the army as well as in the public schools.
Coming to America in 1885, he settled per- manently in Boston, and for three years prac- tised medical gymnastics exclusively. The out- growth of a normal class in Swedish gymnastics, of which he was asked to take charge in 1886, is the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, for whose estal^lishment he was largely indebted to the assistance of Mrs. Mary Hemenway, the well-known philanthropist. Of this school the Baron was director until January 1, 1890.
In February, 1890, he opened a gymnasium of his own in the Harcourt Building, on Irvington Street. This was the small beginning of the Posse Gynmasium, which at the time of the founder's death had over five hundred pupils, and, with its three departments, pedagogical, educational, and medico-gymnastic, its complete apparatus and appointments, adapted to Swedish and other forms of gymnastics, anthropometric e.xercises, fencing, dancing, and so forth, and its comprehensive curriculum, has come to be recognized as one of the finest in the country. His useful activities, however, were not confined to the gymnasium. He not only found time to make translations from famous Swedish authors on gymnastics and kindred subjects and contribute articles to papers and magazines, but wrote several valuable text-books on physical education, among these being " Special Kinesiology of Educational Gynmastics," "Handbook of School Gymnastics," "The Scientific Aspect of Swedish Gymnastics," "Columbian Essays on Swedish Gymnastics," "Medical Gymnastics."
The Journal of Education, in a notice of one of his books, spoke of Baron Posse as having come to this country bringing the gospel of the Ling system of educational gynmastics, and said, " We do not recall any man of any land who has taken such a hold of the teachers and friends of education in Boston as has Baron Nils Posse. Through his judicious, un- ostentatious introduction of physical culture, that subject has been advanced as far in a few months as manual training, for instance, in as many years."
In 1890-91 Baron Posse was lecturer on medi- cal gymnastics to the McLean Asylum and in 1890 to the New England Hospital for Women. He w as a member of the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education; and at the World's Columbian Ex- position in Chicago he was vice-president of the Congress of Physical Education, also Swed- ish Commissioner of the Tourists' Dei)artnient, Gynmastics and Sports, and was awarded medals for his method of instruction. Boston honored him similarly in 1892, and Antwerp in 1894. In October, 1893, he was placetl in charge of the medico-gymnastic clinic in the Boston Dispensary.
On May 15, 1895, his thirty-third birthday, he received from the King of Sweden a decora- tion of a class never before issued to so young a man — that of Knight of Gustavus Vasa, which is bestowed only on those who have brought honor to their native land through special merit or industry.
His untimely death, December 18, 1895, from thrombus, the result of u long periotl of over-taxation of his strength, occasioneil wide- spread sorrow, and calleti forth many warm appreciations of his work and character. Said the Boston Journal: " Baron Nils Posse was of the type of nobleman that America likes best. He was an earnest and successful worker, and leaves behind a record of having accomplished something and of having done the world some good, and both through his own individual efforts."
The estimate of one who knew him appeared in the Herald, in part as follows: "To every life with whom he came in contact he was a source of inspiration and courage. Such kind- ness was mixed with his sterling qualities, in- tegrity, fearlessness, and steadfastness, that he won and held the deepest heart affection, as well as the highest respect of all who knew him peisonally. He had spent only ten short years of professional work, but those years marked achievement sufficient for a lifetime."
Baroness Posse, who was attending RadciifTe College, at once gave uj) her studies and assumed the management of the gymnasium, her one idea being that her husband's life-work must be carried on. The pupils, when they returned from their Christmas vacation, fintling her in charge, showed their loj^alty by remaining. The alumni and friends of the school foinied themselves into the Posse Memorial Associa- tion. Their object was to purchase the name and good will of the Posse Gymnasium, to re- organize it, and to incorporate it under the name of the Posse Institute of Gynmastics. They were to raise a sum of money sufficient to place the school on a firm basis, its future welfare to be guarded by a board of trustees.
During that summer Baroness Posse took her husband's remains to Sweden. She returned in August to find the affairs of the Memorial Association in a chaotic condition and a certain faction talking of opening an independent school. After brief (leliljeration she decided to continue the school under her own management. In the two weeks that intervened before it was to open, an almost incredible amount of work was acconiplished; new teachers were engagetl and some of the old ones re-engaged, and the gymnasium itself was put in repair. On the day and hour appointed, the rc-organized school opened with the largest senior class on record, anel a large entering class. The Memorial Association clevoted the larger portion uf the funds in the treasury to erecting a monument over Baron Posse's grave in Stockholm, Sweden. The balance of the money was spent in purchasing a picture which was hung in the gymnasium. The school continued under the new management with unvaried success until the fall of 1900, when the old rooms on Irvington Street were exchanged for new and improved quarters at 206 Massachusetts Avenue. The continued success of the gymnasium is proof of the executive ability of its manager, who for over seven years has carried on the work with such results as to maintain the reputation first established of being one of the leading normal schools of Swedish gymnastics in the country. Every graduate of this school is now occupying a good position.
Baroness Posse is also interested in literary and philanthropic work and in music. Since December, 1892, she has edited the Posse Gymnasium Journal, which is the only paper of the sort in the country, and has been self-supporting from the start. This paper has been conducted under her sole management for over ten years. It is taken by most of the State university libraries, and it has subscribers in England, France, Germany, and Sweden. The Baroness has delivered lectures before leading educational societies and clubs in Boston and suburbs. Al one time she gave a talk on Swedish Gymnastics before an educational body in London. For years she held an office in the Working Girls' Club, to which she devoted much time. She also assisted in college settlement work.
For a number of years she was the president of the Literary Club of the Posse Gymmasium, a club composed of about four hundred members, which gave several plays with success. She has served on various educational committees, and was first vice-president of the Boston Physical Education Society from 1896 to 1900, when she resigned to accept the office of secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education. She has recently been appointed vice-president of the Physical Education Department of the National Education Association. For several years she was chairman of the Hygiene Committee of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. She is a member of the Longwood Cricket Club, of the Commonwealth Golf Club, in which she held offices, and is vice-president of the Massachusetts Medical Gymnastic Society. The Baroness is very popular socially, and has a large circle of friends.