Woman of the Century/Irene Clark Durrell

DURRELL, Mrs. Irene Clark, educator, born in Plymouth, N. H., 17th May, 1852. Her father, Hiram Clark, is a man of steadfast evangelical faith. Her mother was an exemplary Christian. Until twelve years of age, her advantages were limited to ungraded country schools. She was a pupil for a time in the village grammar-school and in the Plymouth Academy. Taking private lessons of her pastor in Latin and sciences, and studying by herself, she prepared to enter the State Normal School in Plymouth, where she completed the first course in 1872 and the second in 1873, teaching during summer vacations. In 1873 and 1874 she taught the grammar-school in West Lebanon, N. H. In the fall of 1874 she became the teacher of the normal department in the New Hampshire Conference Seminary, and a student in the junior year in the classical course. She was graduated in 1876. She then taught in the State Normal School in Castleton, Vt. On 23rd July, 1878 she became the wife of Rev. J. M. Durrell, D. D. As a Methodist ministers wife, in New Hampshire Conference, for thirteen years Mrs. Durrell IRENE CLARK DURRELL. has had marked success in leading young ladies into an active Christian life and interesting them in behalf of others. As an officer in the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society she has been an efficient organizer. For four years she was district secretary and was a delegate from the New England branch to the Evanston general executive committee meeting. With her husband, in 1882, she took an extended tour abroad. In the spring of 1891 her husband became president of the New Hampshire Conference Seminary and Female College, Tilton, N. H., and Mrs. Durrell became the preceptress of that institution.