1857. At the age of fifteen she commenced to write for publication, under the pen-name "Ida Fairfield," in the "Flag of Our Union." With some interruption by ill-health, she continued many
MARY BASSETT CLARKE.
years to be a contributor to that paper, to the "Rural New Yorker" and to local papers and periodicals. She became the wife of William L. Clarke on 8th September, 1859, and removed to Ashaway, R. I., which place has since been her home. For several years her writings, both prose and verse, have been principally given to periodicals issued by the Seventh-Day Baptists, of which sect she is a member.
MARY H. GRAY CLARKE.
CLARKE, Mrs. Mary H. Gray, correspondent, born in Bristol, R. I., 28th March, 1835. She is the daughter of the late Gideon Gray and Hannah Orne Metcalf Gray. Her father was of the sixth generation from Edward Gray, who came from Westminster, London, England, and settled in Plymouth, Mass., prior to 1643. Edward Gray was married to Dorothy Lettice and was known as the richest merchant of Plymouth. The oldest stone in the Plymouth burial ground is that of Edward Gray. Mrs. Clarke's great-grandfather, Thomas Gray, of the fourth generation, was during the war of the Revolution commissioned as colonel. Mrs. Clarke spent her early years on her father's homestead, a portion of the Mount Hope lands obtained from king Philip, the Indian chief. A farm on those famous lands is still in her possession. She attended the schools of her native town and later studied in the academy in East Greenwich. In 1861 she became the wife of Dr. Augustus P. Clarke, a graduate of Brown University, in the arts, and of Harvard, in medicine. During her husband's four years of service as surgeon and surgeon-in-chief of brigade and of division of cavalry in the war of the Rebellion, she took an active interest in work for the success of the Union cause. In the fall of 1865 her husband, continuing in the practice of his profession, removed to Cambridge, Mass., where they have since resided. They have two daughters Mrs. Clarke has written quite extensively for magazines and for the press, principally stories for the young, poems and essays. In 1890, on the occasion of the meeting of the Tenth International Medical Congress in Berlin, Germany, she accompanied her husband and daughters to that place. She has traveled extensively through the British Isles and Europe. In the midst of her duties and responsibilities she has found time to paint many pictures, some in water-colors and some in oils. Much of the writing of Mrs. Clarke has been under the pen-names "Nina Gray" and "Nina Gray Clarke."
CLARKE, Miss Rebecca Sophia, author, born in Norridgewock, Maine, 22nd February, 1833. She has spent much of her life in her native town. Miss Clarke is widely known by her pen-name, "Sophia May," which she adopted in 1861 and attached to her first story, published in the Memphis "Appeal." When the story was finished, she signed her middle name, Sophia, and then said: "Well, I'll call it May, for I may write again and may not." Thus the surname was invented that has become so familiar to American boys and girls. Among her early productions were some stories for Grace Greenwood's "Little Pilgrim." She was asked by the editor of the "Congregationalist" to send to that journal all the stories she might write about "Little Prudy." She then had no thought of making a book of the stories. William T. Adams, known as "Oliver Optic," brought them to the attention of Mr. Lee, who published them and paid Miss Clarke fifty dollars for each of the six volumes. These charming stories of "Prudy" and her aunts, sisters and cousins have been said to be portraits, but Miss Clarke disclaims any such delineation. The "Prudy" stories are sold in large numbers every year. In 1891 Miss Clarke published her last
