Woman of the Century/Clara H. Hazelrigg

HAZELRIGG, Mrs. Clara H., author, educator and reformer, born in Council Grove. Kans., 23rd November, 1861. CLARA H. HAZELRIGG. She is the youngest living daughter of Col. H. J. Espy. Her mother was Melora E. Cook, teacher in the schools of Sandusky, Ohio. Her father was apprenticed to learn a trade, but ran away at the age of thirteen to become a soldier For more than ten years he was a member of the standing army of the United States. He served with distinction in the Mexican war and was Colonel of the 68th Indiana Volunteers during the Civil War. Wounded several times, carried off the field of Chickamauga for dead, his injuries caused his death shortly after the close of the war. and his four children were left orphans, their mother having died several years before his decease. With an only sister, Clara returned to Indiana, where she had resided during the war. and remained there until after her marriage. At the time of her birth Kansas was undergoing her early struggles for freedom, and the spirit of the times stamped itself on the mind of the child. From the age of eleven she supported herself. Fitting herself for teaching, she began to teach when a young girl, and that occupation she has followed almost without cessation for sixteen years. When twelve years old, she wrote for the press, but, being of a sensitive, retiring disposition, she shrank from public criticism and seldom wrote over her own name. In 1877 she became the wife of W. A. Hazelrigg, of Greensburg, Ind. They have one child, a girl. They removed to Kansas in 1884, and Mrs. Hazelrigg has taught every year since. She is principal of one of the city schools in El Dorado. She has traveled much during her vacations, and writes constantly during the entire year for the press. She has written for many prominent periodicals in various States. She is the editor of a department in a prominent Chicago paper, and is a regular contributor to the Topeka "Lancet." She has labored in the silver-medal work for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and in the public work of the Woman's Relief Corps An active member of the Christian Church since childhood, her work has always been with young people, with whom she is very popular.