Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/655

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SHAW.
SHEARDOWN.

ventured. Her articles on that, as well as her wanderings for the next five years, have made her name well known to the readers of the Boston "Transcript." The years 1889, 1891 and 1892 found EMMA SHAW. her exploring unfrequented nooks in British America and the (Jueen Charlotte Islands. In 1890 she visited all the Hawaiian Islands, the wonders of which furnished material for a long series of articles as well as for several illustrated lectures of exceeding interest. Her lectures were entitled "Up the Saskatchewan," "Through Hawaii with a Kodak" and " From Ocean to Ocean." She published her first poem, "New Year's Eve," in 1883. She has since then written much in verse.


SHEARDOWN, Mrs. Annie Fillmore, singer and musical educator, born in Franklin, Conn., 8th June, 1859. She is descended from five New England Colonist families, the English Fillmores, Hydes, Pembers and Palmers, and the French Fargos. As those families settled early in America, she can call herself purely American. Her mother's family were all musical, and from her earliest childhood her desire was to sing. She began her studies when she was between eight and nine years of age. first with a pupil of Bassini. She afterward took lessons from the late C. K. Hayden, of Boston, and others. ANNIE FILLMORE SHEARDOWN. Her intention at first was to become an oratorio singer, but after she became a student under the late Emma Seiler, in Philadelphia, she decided to study the voice, with the intention of becoming a teacher. After three years with Mrs. Seiler, she took a position as soprano in Christ Church in Norwich, Conn. After filling her engagement, she became the wife of Dr. T. W. Sheardown, son of the late Hon S. B. Sheardown, of Winona. Minn After marriage she continued to sing and teach for the love of it. Five years later, owing to marital troubles she separated from Dr. Sheardown and took up teaching as a profession In 1882 she studied six months with George Sweet, of New York, taking lessons, listening to his lectures and studying his method of imparting. She studied with other teachers, and in 1891 she made a most valuable discovery relative to the voice, finding the voice to be an exact science, a principle to be demonstrated, with laws as unalterable as those of mathematics. She is the first person to note this great fact. She has always felt there was something wrong in all methods, and now, looking at the voice as a principle, she is able to demonstrate where the error lies. A lengthy article from her pen, entitled *' The Philosophy of the Voice in Singing," setting forth a few of her discoveries, appeared in "Werner's Voice Magazine" for April, 1892. She has lived in nine States of the Union, and now permanently located in Atlanta. Ga.


SHELDON, Mrs. Mary French, translator, traveler and author, born in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1846. She is a great-great-granddaughter of Sir Isaac Newton, and her ancestry includes many notable men and women Her maiden name was Mary French. Her father was a machinist and engineer of ability and high standing in Pittsburgh. Her mother was Mrs. Elizabeth French, the well-known spiritualist and faith healer, who died in 1890. Miss Mary French was married in early life to her first husband, Mr. Byrne, from whom she was divorced in 1868 Her second husband was E. F. Sheldon, who died in the summer of 1892 Mr- Sheldon received a fine education. She is a musician and a linguist. She has published one novel and a translation of Flaubert's Salammbo" from the French. She was educated as a physician, but has not practiced. In 1890 she determined to travel in central Africa, to study the women and children in their primitive state. She was the first white woman to reach Mount Kilima-Njaro. She traveled with one female attendant and a small body of Africans. She carried a camera and