Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/42

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AVANN.
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with pen and v#ice, and was a high official in the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of her church. At the age of twelve Ella went to Albion College, Albion, Mich., and was graduated in 1871. In 1873 she was married to L. Hamline Brock way, of Albion, where they lived for fifteen years, when his election as county clerk caused their removal to Marshall. Mr. Brockway died in August, 1887, and Mrs. Brockway with her son, Bruce, aged twelve, and daughter, Ruth, aged six, returned to Albion. In January, 1889, she became preceptress of the college. In that position she displayed great executive ability. Wise in planning, fertile in resources and energetic in execution, her undertakings were successful. She had great power over the young women of the college and exercised that power without apparent effort She won the friendship of every student, and they all instinctively turned to her for counsel. She had the department of English literature, and also lectured on the history of of music. Her earnestness and enthusiasm were contagious and her classes always became interested in their studies. Her addresses to the young ladies were especially prized. For ten years she was president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of Albion district. In June, 1891, she resigned her position in Albion College and on 1 ith August was married to the Rev. Joseph M. Avann, of Findlay, Ohio. As a speaker she is pleasing and fascinating. Occasionally she gives a literary address or speaks in behalf of some benevolent cause away from home. She makes frequent contributions to the religious press, and is connected with various literary, social and benevolent societies, holding official positions.


CATHRINE HITCHCOCK TILDEN AVERY. AVERY, Mrs. Catharine Hitchcock Tilden, author and educator, born in Monroe, Mich., 13th December, 1844. She is the daughter of Hon. Junius Tilden, formerly a prominent lawyer of that State. She was educated in the Framingham Normal School, in Massachusetts, graduating in 1S67. In 1S70, she was married to Dr. Elroy M. Avery. He was for several years principal of the East high schixil and City Normal School, of Cleveland, Ohio, in which positions his wife was his mot able assistant. Dr. Avery is the author of many text-l>ooks, notably a series on natural philosophy and chemistry. He is now engaged in historical research and writing, in which Mrs. Avery is his efficient helper. She is president of the East End Conversational, a club organized in 1878 and comprising many of the bright women of the city. She is a member of the executive committee of the Art and History Club and also of the Cleveland Woman's Press Club. She w as a delegate from the latter club to the International League of Press Clubs, 1892, and took part in the journey from New York to the Golden Gate. Her letters descriptive of the trip were published in the Cleveland "Leader and Herald." She is the regent of the Cleveland Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Four of her ancestors served in the Continental Congress and the cause of freedom. Col. John Bailey, of the Second Massachusetts Regiment, was at Bunker Hill and Monmouth, crossed the Delaware with Washington, and was at Gates's side in the northern campaign which ended in Burgoyne's surrender. The Ciad Hitchcocks, father and son, served as chaplain and as surgeon. The elder Gad, in 1774. preached an election sermon in which he advocated the cause of the Colonies and brought forth the wrath of Gage and the thanks of the Massachusetts General Court. Samuel Tilden, private from Marshfield, and member of the Committee of Safety, completes the list of her Revolutionary ancestors. Descended from six of the "Mayflower" band, she is proud of the Pilgrim blood that (lows in her veins. She has been for twenty years a member of the Euclid Avenue Congregational Church of Cleveland. Mrs. Avery's father died in the spring of 1861. Her husband, when a boy of sixteen years, went to the war, in 1861, with the first company that left his native town. He was mustered out of service in August. 1865.


AVERY, Mrs. Rachel Foster, woman suffragist, born in Pittsburgh, Pa., 30th December, 1858. Her father was J. Heron Foster, of the Pittsburgh "Dispatch." Her mother was a native of Johnstown, N. Y., the birthplace of her Sunday-school teacher and life-long friend, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. When Rachel was a child, Mrs. Stanton lectured in Pittsburgh. Shortly after, a suffrage meeting was held in Mrs. Foster's house, and a society was formed of which she was made vice-president. Thus the young girl grew up in an atmosphere of radicalism and advanced thought. That she is a woman suffragist comes not only from conviction, but by birth-right as well. In 1871 the family, consisting of her mother, her sister, Julia T., and herself, the father having died shortly before, moved to Philadelphia, where they at once identified themselves with the Citizens' Suffrage Association of that city, in which Lucretia Mott, Edward M. Davis, M. Adeline Thompson and others were leading spirits. Her sister, Julia, was for many years a most efficient secretary of that society as well as recording secretary of the National Woman Suffrage Association, and seconded warmly the more active work of her sister, Rachel G., as did also their mother, Mrs. Julia Foster. Both mother and sister have passed away, but their works live after them. When about seventeen years old. Miss Foster began to write for the newspapers, furnishing letters weekly from California and afterward from Europe to the Pittsburgh