book, "In Old Quinnebasset" She resides with her sister, Miss Sarah Clarke, who, as "Penn Shirley," is also a successful author. Miss Clarke's publications, in book form, all issued in Boston, are:
REBECCA SOPHIA CLARKE.
"Little Prudy Stories" (1864-6), six volumes; "Dotty Dimple Stories" (1868-70), six volumes; "Little Prudy's Flyaway Series" (1871-74), six volumes; "The Doctor's Daughter" (1873), "Our Helen" (1875); "The Asbury Twins" (1876); "Flaxie Frizzle Stories" (1876-84), six volumes; "Quinnebasset Girls" (1877); "Janet, or a Poor Heiress." (1882); "Drones' Honey" (1887); "In Old Quinnebasset" (1891).
KATE CLAXTON.
CLAXTON, Kate, actor, born in New York City, in 1848. Her father, Col. Spencer H. Cone, commanded the 61st New York regiment during the Civil War. Her grandfather, Rev. Spencer H. Cone, was a Baptist clergyman, who for a short period was an actor. Kate Claxton first appeared with Lotta in Chicago, soon afterwards joined Daly's Fifth Avenue Company, and then became a member of the Union Square Company. She attracted no special notice until she appeared as Mathilde in "Led Astray," in 1873, in which character she won considerable popularity. Her greatest success was Louise in "The Two Orphans" first brought out in the Union Square Theater, and afterwards produced throughout the United States. While acting the part in the Brooklyn Theater, the building was destroyed by fire, 5th December, 1876, with much loss of life. Miss Claxton's coolness on that occasion, and at the Southern Hotel fire in St. Louis, Mo., shortly afterwards, won for her much praise. She has more recently played in Charles Reade's "Double Marriage," in the "Sea of Ice" and in "Bootles' Baby." Miss Claxton was divorced from her first husband, Isidor Lyon, a merchant of New York. In 1876 she became the wife of Charles Stevenson, a member of her company.
CLAY, Mrs. Mary Barr, woman suffragist and farmer, born in Lexington, Ky., 13th October, 1839. She is a daughter of Cassius M. Clay and Mary J. Warfield. Her childhood and youth were passed in the country, and she was educated mainly by private tutors from Yale College. She became the wife of John Frank Herrick, of Cleveland, Ohio, 3rd October, 1860. She was divorced from him in 1872. The position of her father as an advocate of free speech and of the emancipation of the negro slave in a slave State, gave her, who sympathized with him, the independence of thought and action that was necessary to espouse the cause of woman's political and civil freedom in the same conservative community, and she met much opposition, ridicule and slights with equal fortitude. Her realization of the servile position of women under the laws was brought about by attending a convention held in Cleveland, Ohio, by Lucy Stone, in 1868 or 1869. She then and there subscribed for books and pamphlets and gave them to any one who would read them and wrote articles for the local papers, which the editors published with a protest, declaring that Mrs. Clay alone was responsible for them. She was the first native Kentuckian to take the public platform for woman suffrage. She went to St. Louis in 1879, and, presenting herself to Miss Susan B. Anthony, who was holding a convention there, asked to be admitted as a delegate from Kentucky. Miss Anthony warmly welcomed her and appointed her vice-president for Kentucky, which office she held in that association as long as it existed. In 1879 she organized in Lexington a suffrage club, the first in the State. In 1880 she and Mrs. James Bennett organized one in Richmond which has continued to this time. Mrs. Clay was a member and vice-president for Kentucky for many years of the American Suffrage Association, and was, in 1884, elected president of that association, when it held its convention in Chicago. She was the leading
