covering the entire field of city journalism. She afterwards worked on the San Francisco "Post." She became a wife, mother and widow all in a short space of time, and then turned her attention regularly
MARTHA R. FIELD.
to journalistic work, and became a member of the staff of the New Orleans "Times." She was the first woman newspaper reporter to draw a salary in that city. She served for ten years as a leader-writer on the New Orleans "Picayune." Failing health compelled her to take a rest, and in 1890 she visited Great Britain. She has done a vast amount of work in the newspaper line, and she has won and holds a most enviable position in the South. Mrs. Field founded the first circulating library in New Orleans, and her pen has always been ready to aid the cause of literature and education.
STELLA A. GAINES FIFIELD.
FIFIELD, Mrs. Stella A. Gaines, journalist, born in Paw Paw, Mich., 1st June, 1845. Her family removed to Taylor Falls, Minn., in 1861. She was liberally educated and was graduated from the Chicago Seminary, Minnesota, in 1862. She taught school in Osceola, Wis In 1863 she became the wife of Hon. Samuel S. Fifield, ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Wisconsin, who was then editing the "Polk County Press," the pioneer newspaper of the upper St. Croix valley Mrs. Fifield at once associated herself with her husband in journalism. She has written much for newspapers, and she is a member of the Wisconsin Press Association. In 1873 she and her husband settled in Ashland, Wis., which was then a wilderness border hamlet, and they have been identified with that city up to the present time. Besides her literary work, she does much religious and charitable work. She was chosen a member of the Wisconsin Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition, and in that position her executive capacity enables her to accomplish a great deal of valuable work.
FILLEY, Mrs. Mary A. Powers, woman suffragist and stock-farmer, born in the town of Bristol, N. H., 12th December, 1821. Her great-grandfather, William Powers, an old Revolutionary soldier, was one of the early settlers of the neighboring town of Groton, and lived on what is known as Powers' Hill, where her grandfather and father, Jonathan Powers, were born. Her mother, Anne Kendall, whose grandparents were early settlers of the town of Hebron in 1771, became the wife of Jonathan Powers, and, dying early, left a family of six children, of whom Mary was the oldest daughter. At eleven years of age she was left with the cares and responsibilities of a woman, filling the place of the mother and making the bread, when she was obliged to stand on a chair to reach the table. The cares so early thrust upon her developed strong traits of self-reliance and capabilities that were afterward shown in her maturer life work. About 1840 she went to reside with her aunt, Mrs. Deborah Powers, of Lansingburg, N. Y., a woman of remarkable individuality of character, in business for many years, who died in 1891 at the advanced age of 101 years. In 1851 Mary Powers became the wife of Edward A Filley, of Lansingburg, and went to St. Louis, Mo., to live. There her three children, a son and two daughters, were born. Mrs. Filley, though always feeling the justice and need of equal political rights for all, lived a quiet domestic life, till the passage of the law legalizing prostitution in St. Louis roused all die mother indignation in her, and she felt the time had come to act. Mrs. Filley with other prominent ladies felt that they must do what lay in their power to secure the repeal of such a law. She worked vigorously with pen and petition, though against great odds, sparing no effort, from vigorous articles written for the
papers to personal appeals for influence from members of the legislature. Anything that could be done to save the youth of St. Louis from the degradation of such a law was don-. The effort was crowned with success, and the law was repealed.
