Representative women of New England/Sarah C. F. Wellington

by Mary H. Graves

SARAH CORDELIA FISHER WELLINGTON, a Massachusetts woman, better known as Mrs. Austin C. Wellington, extensively engaged in works of philanthropy and patriotism, is a native resident of Cambridge, Mass. Her father, George Fisher, who died September 12, 1898, was for many years one of the leading citizens in the University City. He was a son of Jabez" Fisher and a lineal descendant in the seventh generation of Anthony* Fisher, who came to New England in 1637 and settled at Dcdham. Some of the early Fishers at Dodham, among them Joshua,*" brother of Anthony,* iLsed a seal bearing a coat of arms described as "azure, a dolphin embowed naiant or" (Fisher Genealogy).

George Fisher was a deep thinker, strong in his anti-slavery and temperance convictions, and was an enthusiast in music. Buying the Cambridge Chronicle in 1859, he continued its editor and proprietor till 1873, when he sold it. He was a member of the Harvard Law School Association. In 1885 he represented his district in the Mtissaehusett^ Legislature. He married in 1840 Hannah Cordelia, daughter of Samuel P. and Eunice (Swan) Teele, of Charles town, and a descendant of old Middlesex County families. Mrs. P^isher also was endowed with musical talents. She was well known and loved for her kindly nature, her large philanthropic work during the Civil War, and her helpfulne-ss among the poor up to the fimo of her death,' July '3, 1894. She was a member of tjie Austin Street Unitarian Church.

Mrs. Wellington's education was received in the public schools of Cambridge, including the high school, where she was graduated, and in Professor Louis Agassiz's School for Young Ladies, of which Mrs. Agassiz was director. She subsequently continued her studies of music at home and abroad, in London being Sarah C. Fisher Wellington the pupil of Signer Randegger and Madame Rudersdorf. She was connected with quartette choirs in Park Street, Old South, and Trinity and Emmanuel Churches, Boston. She was also soprano soloist in the Handel and Haydn Society and in the Cecilia Club. She has travelled extensively in Europe, in her own country, and in Canada, and is a great lover of nature in its wildest grandeur. She recalls with enthusiasm her experience at Oberammergau, witnessing the Passion Play in 1900, also the first performance of Wagner's Nibelungenlied at Bayreuth, conducted by the composer himself, in 1876.

The Woman's Chronicle (issued as a supple- ment to the Cambridge Chronicle) in its issue of December 3, 1898, thus referred to Mrs. Wellington s musical talents: "Music, an in- heritance from her parents, has been one of the chief inspirations of her life and a solace to her sorrows. She was brought up and nurt- ured in a musical atmosphere. Her mother's voice was remarkably sweet, and her father played several instruments, paying special at- tention to the organ and piano. She cannot remember the time when she could not play the piano. Before she was tall enough to reach the keys, she stood on tiptoe to finger the melo- dies she had heard. Besides her fondness for classical music, from childhood martial music always appealed to her, as she was of a patri- otic nature."

Since 1873 she has been actively interested as director in the Cambridge Conservatory of Music, on Lee Street, of which her father was the founder and proprietor. She had the honor of singing in one of the Montreal cathedrals, and has appeared as accompanist with Camilla IJrso, the cefebrated violinist. Many will re- member her in operettas and concerts for chari- table objects.

Mrs. Wellington considers it a pleasure and a duty to engage in the work of philanthropy, the objects of which are constantly knocking at our doors and our hearts with their confi- dential claims and needs. No word of com- plaint or of unkindness is ever heard from her lips. In distributing for the flower mission and visiting the sick and in other forms of charitable work she is an enthusiast, as well as in her musical career. Probably no woman in Cambridge is more generally known and loved than she. For several years she was on the music faculty at Wellesley College and the New I<]nglan(l Conservatory of Music.

Mrs. Wellington from her early youth has been interested in and connected with clubs, being recognized as a born organizer by her schoolmates, as later by her maturer friends. She has been entrusted with many responsible positions, notably the presidency of the daughters of Massachusetts, the Ladies' Aid Association of the Soldiers' Home, the South Middlesex Unitarian Alliance Branches, the Wednesday Club, and New England Conservatory Alumni Association; the vice-presidency of the Charity Club, Massachusetts Volunteer Aid Association, Woman's Christian Temperance l^nion, and Cantabrigia Club; has been secre- tary and treasurer of the Roundabout Club; director in the Cambridge Young Women's Christian Association, the Woman's Club-house Corporation, National I^iitarian W^omen's Alli- ance Board, East End Christian Union; and one of the Parish Committee of the Austin Street Unitarian Church in Cambridge. She is a life member of other prominent organiza- tions, including the New England Woman's Club, Women's Educational and Industrial Union, and American Unitarian Association. She enjoys her membership in the Browning Society, Emerson Society, Shakespeare Club, Boston Political Club, Suffrage League, Civil Service Reform Association, and Political Equal- ity Club, and pays assessments in other clubs to attest her interest in their work even if pre- vented from frequent attendance.

Widely esteemed in social as in public life, she is a woman of great executive ability, a dignified and gracious presiding officer, a ready speaker, and one whose plans and suggestions always command respect. In patriotic work, with which she is in deep sympathy, she was associated with her husband, the late Colonel Austin Clark Wellington, to whom she was married November 29, 1887. A native of Lexington, Mass., son of Jonas Clark and Har- riet E. (Bosworth) Wellington, he had been a resident of Cambridge and later of Boston, having large coal business interests in both of these cities. Colonel Wellington was popular in social and military circles throughout the State. He was Past Commander of E. W. Kinsley Post, No. 113, G. A. R., of Boston. Returning from the Civil War as Adjutant of the Thirty-eighth Massachusetts Regiment, with which he had taken part in seven battles, he was subsequently active in the State militia. The First Regiment, of which he was commissioned Colonel in February, 1882—a position that he held till his decease, September 18, 1888 — he brought to a high standard of excellence, as recognized throughout the country. He was one of the trustees of the Soldiers' Home in Chelsea. For two years in the seventies he served as Representative in the Massachusetts Legislature, and was on the Committee on Military Affairs. In 1871 he joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He was a member of various societies and clubs, literary and musical.

Mrs. Wellington has furnished a room in Colonel Wellington's honor at the Soldiers' Home, Chelsea, known as the Austin Cr Wellington Memorial Room; also one in her own home in Cambridge, containing numerous badges, flags, pictures, books, and other relics and souvenirs, many of them intrinsically valuable, all interesting and highly prized for their associations.