Woman of the Century/Augusta Harvey Worthen

WORTHEN, Mrs. Augusta Harvey, educator and author, born in Sutton, N. H., 27th September, 1823. She is the daughter of Col. John and AUGUSTA HARVEY WORTHEN. Sally Greeley Harvey. Col. John Harvey was a younger brother of Jonathan and Matthew Harvey, who both became members of Congress. Matthew was, in 1831, governor of New Hampshire. When Augusta was eight years of age, she went to live with the last-named uncle, in Hopkinton, N. H., and remaimed six years, during which time she enjoyed the advantage of tuition in Hopkinton Academy. At the age of sixteen she commenced to teach in district schools, which occupation she followed for two years. Weary of idleness during the long vacations, she found employment in a Lowell cotton factory. There she remained three years, doing each day's work of fourteen hours in the factory and pursuing her studies in the evenings in a select school. The first article she offered lot print was written during that time, and was printed in the Lowell "Offering," a magazine devoted exclusively to the productions of the mill operatives. After three years she resumed teaching, and was at one time pupil-assistant in the Andover, N. H., academy, paying for her own tuition by instructing some of the younger classes. On 15th September, 1855, she became the wife of Charles F. Worthen, of Candia, N. H., who died on 15th January, 1882. After marriage to Mr. Worthen, she set herself to work to carry her share of their mutual burdens, but, after a time, comfort and competence being attained, she engaged in study and composition, and wrote prose sketches and poems. The great work of her life has been the preparation of a history of her native town, extending to over eleven-hundred pages. It was published in 1891. It is the first New Hampshire town history prepared by a woman. This heavy work being accomplished, she is again employing her ready pen in writing articles of a lighter and more imaginative character. Her home is in Lynn, Mass., to which city she removed from Danvers, Mass., with her husband, in 1858.