Association, formed in New Orleans, in 1885, for the purpose of fostering State auxiliaries like the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was the principal promoter of the Illinois Woman's Press Association, the first independent State organization for the purpose of affording practical assistance to women in literary pursuits. She was secretary of that association for the first two years, and received an honorary life membership in recognition of her services. Mrs. Conant is noted for being most generous in giving time and thought to all appeals for help. What been said by a longtime friend that if she had been half as zealous in forwarding her own interest as in advancing those of other people she would have made a great financial success in her career. Like all women in public work she has been the constant recipient of the most touching appeals from other women, usually those without technical training, for assistance to occupations by which they could earn their bread. She became oppressed by the problem: "What shall we do with this unskilled army?" When a plan for employing large numbers of these untrained applicants was presented to Mrs. Conant she withdrew from editorial work, in 1891, to engage in the promotion and organization of a corporation projected to give, eventually, remunerative employment to thousands of women in all parts of the country. She was secretary of the company during its first year and took an active part in the business management, then she resigned her trust to others, having made a record of phenomenal success. The year closed with the company well established.
CONANT, Miss Harriet Beecher, physician, born in Greensboro, Vt., 10th June, 1852. Her
HARRIET BEECHER CONANT.
father, E. Tolman Conant. was a life-long resident of that town. His immediate ancestors were natives of Hollis. N. H., and those more remote lived in Salem, Mass., and were of Puritan descent Her maternal ancestors were among the early inhabitants of Londonderry, N. H., which was settled by a colony of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in 1719. Dr. Conant's childhood was spent on a farm. Being second in age in a large family, she early showed her natural gift as a leader and an organizer. Educational advantages in the rural districts of New England were somewhat limited, but she improved every opportunity to acquire knowledge. The death of her father, when she was quite young, changed the tenor of her life. The plan of an academical course of study was dropped, and in practice she accepted the principle of doing the work which came to her. She began to teach in the public schools of Vermont. After a good degree of success there, she went to Unionville, Conn., where she remained six years, the last three as teacher in the high school. From there she was called to be principal of the public schools in St. Johnsbury, Vt., which responsible position she held for three years, when she was obliged by ill health to resign. Going to Minnesota in search of strength and rest, she was enabled, after a time, to carry out her long-cherished wish, and she entered the medical department of the University of Minnesota in October, 1888, and was graduated in the class of 1891. Through the influence of the dean, she received the appointment of resident physician in the South Dakota Hospital for the Insane in Yankton, the duties of which office she assumed the day after receiving her diploma.
CONE, Miss Helen Gray, educator, born in New York City, 8th March, 1859. She was graduated from the New York City Normal College in 1876, in which institution she became instructor in English literature. At her graduation she gave evidence of her poetical gift by the composition of of the class song. Since that time she has contributed to the "Atlantic Monthly." the "Century," "Harper's Magazine," "St Nicholas "and other periodicals. She was a helper in the preparation of the "Century Dictionary," and assisted Miss Jeannette L Gilder in editing "Pen Portraits of Literary Women." She has published two volumes of poems, "Oberon and Puck, Verses Grave and Gay" (New York. 1885) and the "Ride of the Lady and other Poems" (Boston, 1891).
CONKLIN. Mrs. Jane Elizabeth Dexter, born in Utica, N. Y., 7th July, 1831. Her great-grandfather, George Grant, of Abemethy, Scotland, came to America in 1774. He joined the Continental Army and served during the Revolutionary War Her mother was the daughter of William W. Williams, an architect of Albany, N. Y. An uncle of Mrs. Conklin, Asahel Dexter, was a captain in the War of 1812. Mrs. Conklin's father was born in Paris, N. Y., his parents having removed to that place from Mansfield, Conn., in the latter part of the last century. He was a cousin of John G. Saxe, the poet Miss Dexter received her education in the Utica Female Academy and in Mrs. Brinkerhoff’s school for young ladies, Albany, N. Y. Her first composition was written in verse. When she was fourteen years old, her poems were first published, and since that time she has been almost continuously writing. While none of her poems are strictly hymns, many of them are sung in religious meetings. She was, for many years, a contributor to the Utica "Gospel Messenger. " She also wrote for a New York weekly, and for several local papers, prose articles as well as poetry. In December, 1865, she became the wife of Cramer H. Conklin, a veteran of the Civil War, and since that time she has lived in Binghamton, N. Y. Mrs. Conklin always took great interest in the War of the Rebellion and in the defenders of the Republic. When the Grand Army of the Republic
