Introductory.
Rebecca Jane Schiller, was born in the town of Duncannon, Perry County, Pa., on the 24th day of October, 1850. She was the first-born of a family of twelve children. In childhood she was distinguished for her precocity, and her intellectual and physical development were rapid. At an early age she was noted for her remarkable progress as a scholar in the Susquehanna Institute at Duncannon, and at fourteen years she entered Irving Female College at Mechanicsburg, Pa., where she acquired high honor as a student. On her return she helped in the domestic duties of her home and became an assistant to her father in the mercantile business. For two and a-half years she assumed control of the Duncannon Record, writing the editorials and local news for that publication, contributed to the columns of other journals, composed music, and taught many pupils instrumental music. Such is the brief record of a life of ceaseless activity that suddenly closed ere it reached its meridian; for while the shadows were still falling forward and the future was full of promise the decree came for the mortal to put on immortality. On a bright December morning in the glad Christmas time, on the 24th day of December, 1882, anxious friends and loving hearts were praying at the bedside for her recovery.
