Woman of the Century/Mary Elizabeth Blanchard Lynde

LYNDE, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Blanchard, philanthropist, born in Truxton, Cortland county, N. Y., 4th December, 1819. Her father was Azariel Blanchard. Her mother was Elizabeth Rabcock, a native of South Kingston, R. I. She was educated principally in the Albany Female Academy, where she was graduated in 1839, taking the first prize medal for composition, which was presented by the governor of the State, Hon. William H. Seward. Mrs. Lynde has spent most of her married life in Milwaukee, Wis. She is the widow of the eminent lawyer, Hon. William Pitt Lynde. She was appointed a member of the Wisconsin State Board of Charities and Reforms, while Governor Lucius Fairchild was in office. She was the first woman to hold such a position, and she filled it with great honor to herself and benefit to the dependent classes. She has spoken much in public, chiefly before legislative committees in behalf of charitable institutions, but also before State conventions of charities. She read papers in the meetings of the Association for the Advancement of Women in Chicago and Boston, and her ideas were so practical and forcible as to attract unusual attention. She is at present engaged in looking after the general interests of the Girls' Industrial School in Milwaukee, and she is more especially prominent in connection with the World's Columbian Exposition.