BELCHER, Mrs. Cynthia Holmes, journalist, born in Lunenburg, Vt., 1st December, 1827. She is a daughter of the Hon. George E. and Mary Moore Holmes. Her father served
CYNTHIA HOLMES BELCHER.
as a member of the State Senate and as judge in Essex county. Miss Holmes was educated in the academy in St. Johnsbury, Vt. Her father removed his family of seven daughters from St. Johnsbury to Port Byron, 111., when she was eighteen years old. In her twentieth year she was married to Nathaniel Belcher, a descendant of prominent New England people and one of the pioneers in the settlement of Illinois. He held various offices of trust and was a member of the Whig party that nominated General Winfield Scott for the presidency, and was a prolific political writer. Mr. and Mrs. Belcher traveled extensively. In 1881 they visited Colorado, and in 1882 went to California, where they passed a pleasant year. Their tour included all parts of the Union. On one of their visits to Washington, D. C, they were received by President Franklin Pierce, and on a later occasion visited President Grant in the White House. After the death of her husband and two children Mrs. Belcher returned to New England and settled in Boston, that she might indulge and develop her literary, artistic and musical talents. She studied singing in the New England Conservatory of Music and gradually became known also as a contributor to leading newspapers. In 1889 she visited Europe and contributed letters on her travels through the different countries, also describing the Paris Exposition. She is a member of the New England Woman's Press Association. Besides her literary work, she has always been identified with all works of reform, and with church and temperance work, the woman suffrage movement in particular receiving much thought and labor
from her. All her thought has been in the line of
elevating the individual and the community.
BELL, Mrs. Caroline Horton, philanthropist, born in Windham. Green county, N. Y., 28th December, 1840. Her father, Rev. Goodrich Horton, was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a descendant of the Goodriches. one of those earnest, pious, old colonial families. Her mother, whose maiden name was Lydia Fairchild, was a granddaughter of John Fairchild, an officer in the war of the Revolution, and also of Joseph Wood worth, a soldier in the same way. She received a liberal education in a seminary in Springfield, Mass. Miss Horton was married nth October, 1866, to Samuel R. Bell, and they settled in Milwaukee, Wis., where they have since resided. Mr Bell was a soldier of the Rebellion, enlisting in the 28th Wisconsin Regiment and winning an honorable record. Soon after the formation of the department of the Wisconsin Woman's Relief Corps Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic, Mrs. Bell became prominently connected with the order and has filled a number of positions in that organization. The work she has been enabled to accomplish in that line is important. She was a charter member of E. B. Wolcott Corps, served two years as its chaplain, and nearly two as its president, at which time she was also elected department president. Aside from the work of the Woman's Relief Corps, she has been prominently connected with various other charities of Milwaukee. She was a member of the Benevolent Society upon its organization, and afterward of the Associated Charities. She was one of the founders of the first kindergarten established in that city, and for a long time was one of the directors of the Home of the Friendless, and has been a director of the Home
CAROLINE MORTON BELL.
of the Aged since its organization. She was president of the aid society of Calvary Presbyterian Church for several years, during which time she assisted in raising money for the Young Men's
