her attention to her long-desired wish to become an artist. Returning to New York, she entered the Academy of Design, afterward becoming one of the original members of the Art League, the school opening on Fifth Avenue. Many of her figure paintings have been exhibited in the National Academy of Fine Arts and in many of the large cities. One life-size piece, entitled "Only Five Cents!" won her two gold medals. In 1877 she became the wife of Elmer A. Thayer, of Worcester, Mass. They lived in Chicago, Ill., for the following six years, and she devoted her entire time to her art. In 1882 Mr. Thayer's large business interests called him to Colorado. They moved to Salida, where they now reside in a beautiful home in the very heart of the Rocky Mountains. There Mrs. Thayer found nature offering a new and inexhaustible field for her art in the delicate and beautiful Mora of that rich region. Her first book, "Wild Flowers of Colorado," was published in 1883 (New York). It contains twenty-four plates of the mountain (lowers found in that State, and has had a large sale. Two years later " Wild Flowers of the Pacific Coast " was published, and proved even more beautiful than its predecessor. One of the highest examples of the genius of this American artist is a memorial window, which adorns the Church of the Ascension in Salida. It is dedicated to the memory of her father, who died in 1886. Her talent as a writer of fiction is shown in her novel, "An English-American," published in 1890. She is not only a gifted artist and versatile writer, but her life bears a noble record of charitable deeds. Of her four children, only one is living, Byron H. Graves, A daughter, Mrs. J. Wallis Ohl, died 1892.
THAYER, Misa Lizzie E. D., train-dispatcher, born in Ware, Mass., 5th October, 1857. Her family removed to New London, Conn., in 1871. On her mother's side she is French and Scotch. Her grandmother was a Scotch gentle-woman, Selina Simpson, of Castle Craig, Scotland, who eloped from a French convent with Ariel de la Roque, a captain in the French navy, and came to the United States after being disowned by her family. On her father's side she is related to the late President Thiers, of France, and to the Revolutionary general, Nathaniel Green. She inherits all the best traits of her family on both sides.
.jpg)
LIZZIE E. D. THAYER.
She was educated thoroughly, and is a graduate of the young ladies' high school in New London. She has been a telegraph operator since 1878, and was employed in various New England offices of the Western Union Telegraph Company and one year in an office of the New York and New England Railroad. In 1889 she entered the service of the New London Northern Railroad, which extends from New London, Conn., to Brattleboro, Vt, a distance of one-hundred-twenty-one miles. Not a mile of the road is double-tracked. The road is leased by the Central Vermont and is one of the principal outlets of that system. It does a large freight business, connecting with the "Soo" limes, the Canadian Pacific, the Canadian Atlantic and the Erie Dispatch. There are forty-eight regular trains on the time-table, and many extra ones, both freight and passenger. In the summer, excursion trains are run at frequent intervals. Over all the immense business of the line she exercises supervision. It w.is not intended that she should he the train-dispatcher of the road. She had been the train-dispatcher's assistant for nearly a year, and he resigned. There was no one else to take his place, and Miss Thayer was put in charge temporarily. She had received a great deal of information while acting as assistant, and was able to do all his duties. The officials of the road looked high and low for a man who had the necessary qualifications. Their search was in vain. Meantime the road was running along as usual. Finally they got tired of looking for a man whom they could not find, and, as Miss Thayer's work had been satisfactory, she was made the official train-dispatcher. For the first seven months she held the place without assistance of any kind, and was on duty daily from 7 a. m. until 9 p. m. She has a man assistant now, and that makes her work much lighter, but it does not relieve her of responsibility. During the two years of her service there has not been a single accident for which she was in any way to blame. She has her office in New London. She is the first and only woman in the world to hold the important position of train-dispatcher. Her subordinates are firmly held in hand, but she is popular with all the employés of the road.
THOMAS, Misa Edith Matilda, poet, born in Chatham. Ohio, 12th August, 1854. Her family moved to Kenton, Ohio, where they lived in 1858 and 1859. In 1860 they moved to Bowling Green, Wood county. Ohio, where they remained till her father died, in 1861. After his death. Mrs. Thomas, with her two daughters, Edith and Nena. moved to Geneva, Ohio, where they remained till her death, in 1887. Edith was educated in the normal school in Geneva, and encouraged by her mother to develop the poetical faculty, which she had displayed from childhood. While she was yet a student, several of her poems were published in Ohio newspapers, and they were widely quoted. Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson was impressed by her poems, and she introduced Miss Thomas to the editors of the "Atlantic Monthly" and the "Century," and she became a contributor to those and other magazines. In 1885 she published her first volume of verse, entitled a "New Year's Masque, and Other Poems. " In 1 686 she published in a volume a series of prose papers, entitled "The Round Year." In 1887 she
