Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/404

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HOXIE.
HUDSON.
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her many handsome souvenirs. Returning to the United States, her statue of Lincoln was unveiled in the rotunda of the Capitol with many imposing ceremonies, Senator Cullom, of Illinois, and Senator VINNIE REAM HOXIE. Carpenter, of Wisconsin, being the speakers. When Miss Vinnie received the order for the statue of Farragut she worked on the model in the ordnance building of the navy yard, and that statue was cast from the metal of the propeller of the Hartford, his flag-ship. Before the model was finished, she was introduced to Lieutenant Hoxie, a young engineer officer, by General Sherman, and they became engaged and married with the warm approval of General Sherman and Mrs. Farragut. General Sherman gave the bride away, and the wedding was one of the most imposing ever seen in Washington. Lieutenant Hoxie built for them- selves a most artistic home on Karragut Square, and hopes to spend his declining years there, when the distant day of his retirement comes. When the statue of Farragut was unveiled, Senator Voorhees, President Garfield and Horace Maynard spoke. Captain Hoxie is now stationed in the engineering first of Willets Point, New York harbor. Mrs. Hoxie, at the earnest request of her husband, now models only for love, and not for money. She has many such works on hand, and will have several on exhibition in the World's Pair. She devotes a great deal of time to music.


MARY CLEMMER HUDSON. HUDSON, Mrs. Mary Clemmer, journalist and poet, born in Utica, N. Y., in 1840. Her ancestors on both sides came from famous families. Abraham Clemmer, her father, a native of Pennsylvania, was of Huguenot descent, and Margaret Kneale, her mother, was a descendant of the Crains, a well-known family of the Isle of Man, who trace a direct line back to 1600. Mary Clemmer was one of a large family of children, two brothers and four sisters of which still survive. Her principal education was received in the Westfield Academy, in Westfield, N. Y. Even in her earliest school-days she showed great fondness for literature and poetry. Unfortunately, at the early age of seventeen, she yielded to the wishes of others and became the wife of a man many years her senior. The taking of that step was undoubtedly due in part to the onerous and probably unhappy life she was then leading at home. Her marriage was legally annulled in 1874. During that interval she temporarily resided in Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and, during the war, in Harper's Kerry, Va., where she witnessed and afterwards very vividly described in her novel, "Erena," the contest which took place there. When but a schoolgirl, she formed a strong liking for Alice Cary and her poetry, and when she went to New York she readily found her way to the home and heart of that noble woman, with whom she formed a lasting friendship and to whom she afterward paid high tribute inner work, "Memorial of Alice and Phabe Cary," which she called her work of love. Miss Clemmer tried novel-writing, and her first work to receive attention was "Erena: A Woman's Right." Then "His Two Wives" appeared in "Every Saturday," Boston. She was engaged upon a novel when an accident occurred, which compelled her to cease all literary effort, and consequently the work was never finished. Among her literary works which received special attention was "Ten Years in Washington " (Hartford, 1870). Prom her sixteenth year she had written poetry. While in school, a poem of hers had been published in a number of papers, a fact which encouraged her. In 1882 her poems were collected and published under the title, "A Volume of Poems." From 1866 to 1869 Miss Clemmer resided in Washington, doing regular work in the way of letters from Washington for the New York "Independent" In 1869 she engaged for three years' work on the Brooklyn " Daily Union," and for the third year's work of that engagement she