into business, desiring that Mrs. Cobb should retire from school work, to which she had given twenty-five years of continuous service. In Philadelphia she is an active member of the board of managers of the Woman's Christian Association, having been an editor of its organ, "Faith and Works," for three years, and she is one of the editors of the "National Baptist," Philadelphia. As secretary of Foulke and Long Institute and Industrial Training School, she is actively supervising the erection of its new building in Philadelphia. Mrs. Cobb has long been a member of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections and of the Association for the Advancement of Women, and she has several times read papers before those bodies. She is an advocate of institutional training, rather than of the "placing-out" system, for neglected and destitute children. She is earnest and practical in the promotion of manual training and technical education, and to her patient study and efforts much of the success of that movement in several States may be traced. Her more important recent papers have been "The Duty of the State to its Dependent Children," and "Training and Employments in Reformatories."
SARA M. MAXSON COBB.
COBB, Mrs. Sara M. Maxson, art teacher and artist, born in Geneva, N. Y., 30th September, 1858. She traces her lineage on her father s side to the Maxtons, of Maxton-on-the-Tweed, in Scotland. Her father's family came to America in 1701, after having been settled in England for generations. Her father, E. R. Maxson, A.M., M.D., LL.D.. a graduate of Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa., had been a lecturer on medical subjects in the colleges of Philadelphia, Pa., and Geneva, N. Y. His "Practice of Medicine" and "Hospitals: British, French and American," are well-know n books. Her mother, Lucy Potter Lannhere, was of French-English extraction. Mrs. Maxson-Cobb has lived in Geneva, Adams and Syracuse, N. Y., in Philadelphia, Pa., and Kent's Hill. Maine, and now resides in Boulder, Col. When very young she commenced to write for amateur papers. When about eight years of age, happening to read an article on drawing, she tried her pencil at reproducing the simple cuts given in it for copying, with a success so surprising to herself that she then and there resolved in her own mind to become an artist. Her parents had her taught in drawing from youth. In 1883 she was graduated from the Liberal Art College of Svracuse University, Syracuse, N. Y., and she has since received from it, on examination in a post-graduate
course, the degree of Ph.D. She is a member of the Alpha chapter of the college society. Alpha Phi. In 1886 she w:is graduated from the Fine Art College of the same University with the degree Bachelor of Painting Immediately after graduating she was induced to found and conduct an art school in connection with the college and seminary in Kent's Hill, Maine. Under her management the school soon became successful. In 1892 she was engaged by the regents of the State University of Colorado to introduce drawing there, and she still has it in charge. Her own artistic productions, though yet comparatively few in number, have been well received. She executes in all usual mediums. A strong literary taste and sympathy for active philanthropic and Christian enterprise have led her into many kinds of work. Her numerous poems, stories told in verse, translations from the German, travel -correspondence and articles on art subjects have found their way into prominent publications. She is a believer in united action, and in the many societies to which she belongs, missionary, temperance, art, literary and scientific, she is recognized as a superior organiser and leader. Geology, microscopy and photography claim a share of her attention, and she has an interesting collection of specimens of her own finding, slides of her own mounting and photographs 01 her own taking. She delights in music and has a cultivated contralto voice. In March, 1890. she became the wife of Herbert Edgar Cobb, of Maine, a graduate of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and now one of the teachers of mathematics in the State University of Colorado.
COCHRANE, Miss Elizabeth, author, journalist and traveler, known the world over by her pen-name, "Nellie Bly." born in Cochrane Mills. Pa., 5th May, 1867. a place named after her father, who was a lawyer and for several terms filled the office of associate judge of Armstrong county, Pa. She is a descendant on her father's side of Lord Cochrane, the famous English admiral, who was noted for his deeds of daring, and who was never happy unless engaged in some exciting affair. Miss Cochrane's great-grandfather Cochrane was one of a number of men who wrote a declaration of independence in Maryland near the South Mountains a long time before the historic Declaration of Independence was delivered to the world. Her great-grandfather, on her mother's side, was a man of wealth, owning at one time almost all of Somerset county, Pa. His name was Kennedy, and his wife was a nobleman's daughter. They eloped and fled to America. He was an officer, as were his two sons, in the Revolutionary War. Afterward he was sheriff of Somerset county repeatedly until old age compelled him to decline the office. One of his sons. Thomas Kennedy, Miss Cochrane's grand-uncle, made a flying trip around the word, starting from and returning to New York City, where his wife awaited his arrival. It took him three years to make the trip, and he returned in shattered health. Heat once set about
