Woman of the Century/Amelia M. Starkweather

STARKWEATHER, Miss Amelia Minerva, educator and author, was born in Starkville, AMELIA MINERVA STARKWEATHER. town of Stark, Herkimer county, N. Y. At the age of four years she removed with her parents to Bergen, Genesee county, N. Y. She began her school career in the district school, and her advancement was rapid. While attending the Cary Collegiate Seminary, in Oakfield, N. Y., her love of poetry and poetic composition attracted the attention of the teachers and patrons of the school. She began to teach at the age of fifteen years, and gained a reputation for efficiency and faithfulness. Stricken with inflammation of the eyes, which left them in a weak state, she retired almost entirely from society for several years, pursuing with difficulty her vocation. Her first poem w as published in the "Progressive Batavian," and many poems have followed in various periodicals. After some years spent in successful teaching in New York, she removed to Pennsylvania and accepted a position in the primary department of the public schools of Titusville. There she found more leisure for literary pursuits, as well as time for Sunday-school and other Christian work, to which she was especially devoted. She was for seven years superintendent of a large Sunday-school. By her personal visitation and labor many poor children were sought out, clothed and taken to the school. The various literary entertainments which she prepared and presented to the public were models of their kind. During her residence in Titusville she entered the lecture field and was received with favor. She served efficiently the Home Missionary Society for three years as president, and was actively connected with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, being for some time county superintendent of juvenile work and other departments of Christian, benevolent and reformatory work. With all that work she continued to write, and a large number of hymns, poems for children, and short stories in prose came from her pen. A few years ago she published "Tom Tits and Other Bits," which has reached a second edition. Her hymns have been published in several Sunday-school and devotional books. She removed from Titusville several years ago to accept the superintendency of the Western New York Home for Friendless Children, and in that capacity, as well as in the position of financial agent of that institution, her labors were abundant and successful. She has long felt a drawing toward work more directly missionary in character. Yielding to her inclinations, she has entered upon the work of a deaconess in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her vacations have usually been spent in her cottage in Chautauqua. N. Y., which is her permanent home.