Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/413

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408
HURD.
HURLBUT.

to her studies was severe myopia. Her greatest bereavement was the death of her father, when she was but sixteen years of age, leaving her mother, who was in feeble health, with the care of a large family, and throwing Helen upon her own resources for further advancement in her studies beyond the common school. Her perseverance overcame both difficulties to such an extent as to make her studies and readings quite ample, and in the normal class she prepared herself for teaching. The trouble with her eyes had made teaching impossible, and thus poem after poem followed in quick succession. Miss Hurd had hoarded her rhymes, making no effort to come before the public until, one plan after another of her life having failed, she began to believe that she should not bury her talent. She has published a large volume, her "Poetical Works" (Boston, 1887), illustrated by Miss Allie Collins, and has ready for publication another volume of poems, a novel and a history of Hallowell, which she hopes to complete soon. Miss Hurd has taken an active interest in the temperance cause and other movements that concern humanity. Her home is now in Athens, Maine.


HURLBUT, Miss Harriette Persia, artist, born in Racine, Wis., 26th February, 1862. She is a daughter of the late Henry H. Hurlbut, the author of several works, among them "Chicago Antiquities" and "Hurlbut Genealogy." Through her mother, Harriet E. Sykes Hurlbut, she traces her ancestry back to four of the Mayflower pilgrims, among them Priscilla Mullins and her husband, John Alden. The line of descent through their daughter, Ruth, includes the names of Deacon Samuel Bass, his daughter, Mary Bass Bowditch, Abigail Bowditch, Jeremiah Pratt and Harriette HARRIETTE PERSIA HURLBUT. Partridge Pratt, who married Dr. Royal S. Sykes, of Dorset, Vt, and was the grandmother of Miss Hurlbut. With her family Harriette moved to Chicago in the winter of 1873, and has resided in that city ever since. Miss Hurlbut possessed parents of marked superiority, whose constant companionship she enjoyed, as the youngest child and only daughter, until the death of both occurred within the past two years. Her father was a man of literary tastes and pursuits, especially devoted to the graver works of learning and research. He loved history, personal and impersonal, and cultivated it with unfailing enthusiasm. Mrs. Hurlbut possessed many graces of mind and strength of character. The daughter partakes more of the traits of her father, his fondness for matters historical and genealogical. From this tendency it comes that even her art is not to her an inspiration, and what success has been achieved has been due to hard work. She was graduated from Park Institute, Chicago, it June, 1880. An early fondness for drawing turned her attention to art, and she entered the studio of Professor P. Baumgras, with whom she pursued her studies in sketching and oil painting almost continuously for eight years. Her first venture was in connection with Mrs. Mary B. Baumgras. Together they opened a studio in Chicago. Miss Hurlbut's best known picture is the life-size portrait of Samuel Champlain, which forms part of the Chicago Historical Society's collection. Always of a serious cast of mind, Miss Hurlbut passes her life in retirement, with her brother, in the paternal home in Chicago, where she is devoting herself at present to the completion of a family record-book, which her father began long ago.


CORNELIA COLLINS HUSSEY. HUSSEY, Mrs. Cornelia Collins, philanthropist, born in New York in 1827. Her maiden name was Collins. She is a member of the Society of Friends, to which sect her family have belonged for several generations. In early years she was in sympathy with the anti-slavery movement, and before reaching her majority became a manager of the Colored Orphan Asylum in her native city. In 1851 Miss Collins became the wife of William H. Hussey,