Pearson family for generations had been a musical one. Her grandfather, John Pearson, was a singer and composer of both words and music that were sung in the Congregational Church in Newburyport, Mass. He was a fine performer on several instruments, and from him Martha inherited her strong love and talent for music. She studied music and even ventured to compose airs, when she was six years old. Among her published songs are "Under the Lilies Sleeping" and "Go, Forget Me." She has many musical compositions in manuscript, and some of her temperance songs are published in the temperance department of "Woman in Sacred Song." Some of her verses have been set to music by Prof. T. M. Towne. When she w as yet a child, her family moved to Cincinnati, O., and afterward to Covington, Ky., where she attended school for a number of years. Her teacher trained her in composition, for which she early showed a strong talent She attended a young ladies' seminary in Covington, and at the age of sixteen years published in the local papers several serial stories over the pen-name " Mattie May." Some of her poems appeared when she w as eleven years old. At the age of ten she began to write a book founded on the Maine Liquor Law. in which a wonderful hero and an abundance of tragedy were conspicuous. The irrepressible author displayed itself in her on several occasions. During the cholera epidemic in Covington she was slightly indisposed, and her parents, imagining her a victim of the pest, hurried her to bed, bathed her aching head, and enjoined her to keep quiet. Shortly after her mother entered her room and was amazed to see the supposed cholera patient sitting up in bed, with flushed face, writing as fast as she could a poem entitled "The Song of the Pestilence." She was not allowed to finish the song. She lived in Kentucky until 1857. w hen she removed to Minnesota. In 1859 she became the wife of Edson R. Smith, a banker and mill-owner, of Le Sueur, who has served his State as Senator. Their family consists of three sons. Mrs. Smith does much charitable work. Her first years in Minnesota were troublesome ones, as the Dakota Indians were then murdering the pioneers. Mrs. Smith and her children were sent to Vermont for some months, until the Indian troubles were ended. She is a voluminous writer, but most of her best work h;is never been published. She is a lover of children and a most devoted home-maker and housekeeper.
SMITH, Miss Mary Belle, educator and temperance worker, born in that part of Middlefield, Conn., now known as Rockfall, 18th December, 1861. On her father's side she traces her descent from the early settlers of the country, through a long line of men who were identified with the mercantile and manufacturing interests of the country. On her mother's side is strongly patriotic blood, and members of her line have fought for their country in every war that has taken place since the lauding of the Pilgrims.
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MARY BELLE SMITH.
She received a careful moral and mental home training and has been from childhood a thorough student She was taught at home by her mother until ten years of age, when she was placed under the tuition of a teacher w hose instruction prepared her to take the entrance examination of Mount Holyoke College, from which institution she was graduated in 1886. After graduating, she entered her father's office as a practical accountant and remained for two years, having entire charge of his books and correspondence and acquiring a thorough business education. She devoted much of her time to Sunday-school and missionary work and became an active member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, having joined the young woman's organization while in college. She has held various offices in the local union, has been county secretary and State superintendent of press-work, and is the
