Dodge, she has spoken to the Working Girl's Clubs of New York City. It is a scene of absorbing interest when, with rare tact and delicacy, she addresses large audiences of young men on the work of the White Cross. Her mission in the work of reform and philanthropy demands a peculiar talent which she possesses in an unusual degree; a scientific education which enables her to speak with authority; a winning presence; a musical voice which makes itself heard in the largest building with no apparent effort, and which by its sympathetic quality arrests attention and touches the heart, while her words appeal to the reason, and a gentle womanly manner which converts the most pronounced opposer of woman's public work. To those who hear her on the platform or in the foul pit, she is a living voice, alluring her hearers to lives of truth and purity, and to those who know her personally she is a sweet womanly presence, the embodiment of those graces which are the power in the home.
ALLERTON, Mrs. Ellen Palmer, poet, born in Centerville, N. Y.. 17th October, 1835. Her ancestors were of Knickerbocker blood. She received a district-school education and afterwards spent a few terms in academies, but never graduated. Her marriage to Alpheus B. Allerton, took place in 1862, soon after her removal to Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Allerton were both invalids in Wisconsin, but in 1879, traveled to Kansas in a wagon, cooking their own meals and getting health and happiness out of the journey. They selected for a home an unimproved farm, a-quarter section, on very high land in Brown county, in sight of Padonia, Hamlin, Falls City and Hiawatha. They now have a handsome home and every comfort
ELLEN PALMER ALLERTON.
that prosperity brings in its train. Mrs. Allerton composed and recited verses before she could write, but offered little to the press until she was past thirty years of age. Her first poems were published in "The Jefferson County Union," Ex-Governor Hoard's paper. Later she contributed to Milwaukee and Chicago papers, and was at one time book-reviewer for the Milwaukee "Sentinel." She has published one volume, "Poems of the Prairies." (New York, 1886). She is considered one of the leading authors of Kansas. As a woman and as a writer she is quiet and sensible. At her home in Padonia she has a wide circle of loving friends, and throughout the West the hearts that hold her dear are legion.
ALLYN, Mrs. Eunice Eloisae Gibbs, author, born in Brecksville, a suburb of Cleveland,
EUNICE ELOISAE ALLYN.
Ohio. Her father, Dr. Sidney Smith Gibbs, was a native of Schoharie county, N. Y., and her mother, Eunice Lucinda Newberry, was a native of St. Lawrence county, in the same State. Dr. Gibbs was practicing in Brecksville when he married Miss Newberry, who was a cultured and successful teacher. He was a relative of Sidney Smith, and was naturally of a literary turn. Mrs. Gibbs possessed similar talents, and many articles from their pens were published in the press of the day. Their family consisted of four children, of whom Eunice was the third. After various changes of climate in search of health, Dr. Gibbs died in comparatively early manhood, leaving his wife with three young children to provide for. The devoted mother most nobly filled her trust. After his death the family moved from Jackson, Mich., to Cleveland, Ohio, where Eunice was graduated with honors from the high school. She intended to become a teacher, but her mother dissuaded her and she remained at home, going into society and writing in a quiet way for the local papers. Her articles were signed by various pen-names in order to avoid displeasing one of her brothers, who did not wish to have a "blue-stocking" in the family. Her first published poems appeared in the Cleveland "Plain Dealer," when she was only thirteen
