Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/685

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680
STEARNS.
STEARNS.

Institute, New York, awarded it a special medal for excellence, and in 1878 the Massachusetts Mechanical Association awarded its second medal for an improvement made. She then organized the BETSEY ANN STEARNS. Boston Dresscutting School and several other branch schools in other States, so that now the Steam's tailor method for cutting ladies' and children's garments has Income a household word.


STEARNS, Mrs. Nellie George, artist, born in Warner, N. H., 10th July, 1855. She is the daughter of Gilman C. and Nancy B. George, and wife of George Frederick Stearns. She inherited from her mother a decided inclination toward art, even in her childhood. From her father she inherits poetic talents. Sketching was her constant amusement. Her parents early engaged art tutors for her in her own home. She was graduated with high honors in one of the best institutions of learning. NELLIE GEORGE STEARNS. After leaving school she taught for several years. She took a thorough course in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and later studied portrait painting with Monsieur Emilie Lonigo. She has wide knowledge of technique. Her painting of "The Great Rid Pipe Stone Quarry," a scene immortalized in Longfellow's "Hiawatha," was exhibited in the New Orleans World's Exposition in 1884. She most delights in painting the human face and form. Her home and studio are In Boston, and her time is spent in teaching art in its various branches Her summers are devoted to classes throughout the New England States. During the season of 1891 she had charge of the art department in the East Epping, Chautauqua Assembly. N. H.


STEARNS, Mrs. Sarah Burger, woman suffragist and reformer, born in New York City, 30th November, 1836. She went with her parents to Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1845. Being a thoughtful child, she early felt the injustice of excluding girls from the State University. Of this she took note in a school paper, which she edited for a year, at the age of fourteen. At fifteen she served as president of an industrious literary society of girls. At sixteen she had the good fortune to attend a national woman's rights convention, held in Cleveland, Ohio Inspired by the eloquence of Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone and others to do her part toward securing a higher education for women, she left the Cleveland high school three years later, and returned to Ann Arbor to prepare, with others, for the classical course of the State University. Miss Burger succeeded in finding a dozen young women who could and would make with her the first formal application to the regents for admission. The only reply given them was that "It seems inexpedient, at present, for the University to admit ladies." The discussion thus aroused in 1858 never ceased until young women were admitted in 1869. In the meantime she had accepted, for a year, a position as preceptress and teacher of Greek and Latin in an academy for girls and boys, and made a second application. Receiving the same answer as before, she entered and soon was graduated in the State Normal School. After spending six months in her native city, she returned to Michigan and became the wife of Lieutenant Ozora P. Stearns, a young man who had won her heart, five years before, by advocating Justice for women. As he was in the army, she after marriage, served one year as preceptress in a seminary for young women in Monroe, Mich. Her husband, having obtained a position on staff duty in St. Paul, Minn., wished her to be with him until he was sent south, after which she returned to her home in Detroit, Mich., but not long to be idle. She sought to arouse the indifferent and employ the inactive by lectures upon the Soldiers" Aid Societies and the Sanitary Commission. While in Boston, Mass., the Parker Fraternity invited her to give a lecture upon the "Wrongs of Women and Their