Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/88

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BIGELOW.
BIGELOW.
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Ohio. They removed and settled in Geneva, Neb., being the first residents of that place. After eight years of quiet home life, the question of the woman suffrage amendment being brought before the people, she entered into its advocacy. Soon becoming known as a talker and writer on that subject, she was elected president of the county Equal Suffrage Association and sent as a delegate to the State convention in Omaha. There she made her first appearance as a public speaker and her reception encouraged a continuance of work in that line. The next winter, in Lincoln, she was elected to the office of State secretary and traveled over the State in the interest of the amendment, making effective speeches where opportunity offered and awakening much interest in the subject. She was twice a candidate for county superintendent of instruction on the prohibition ticket, and represented the State in the national convention of that party held in Indianapolis in 1888. She has served for five years as secretary of the Lincoln Woman's Christian Temperance Union, being a member of the union in its infancy. She is superintendent of foreign work for the State union, and was elected delegate to the national convention in Boston in 1891. She is known as an interesting writer for the press on both religious and secular topics. She has been the mother of seven children, four of whom are living.


ELLA AUGUSTA BIGELOW. BIGELOW, Mrs. Ella Augusta, musician, born in Maiden, Mass., in 1849. Her father, Lewis Fisher, and mother, Ruth Benchley, are both of good old English descent. For many years her home was in the town of Milford. Her parents being in good circumstances, the best of instruction was given her Developing a taste for music, she was placed under the care of the most advanced teachers in Boston. As a church singer she has been well known in Fitchburg and various other cities, singing at intervals with such artists as Carlyle Petersilea and Eichberg with his "Germania Orchestra." In 1873 she went to Germany, residing while there chiefly in Berlin. There she studied with Ferdinand Sieber, court professor of music, and Fraulein Kess, both of whom gave her strong encouragement to choose a musical career. Becoming acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. George Bancroft, he being minister to Berlin at that time, the opportunity was given her, through their kindness, of meeting many celebrities and making many friends. Before returning to America she traveled through Europe. At a later period she was married to Edward L. Bigelow, of Marlboro, Mass. where she now resides in an old Colonial house, full of antiques and souvenirs of travel. There she devotes her time to the education of her three children, making home-life attractive and giving to the public frequent helps to intellectual improvement. She has published "Prize Quotations" (Marlboro, 18871, "Venice" (Marlboro, 1890), "Old Masters of Art" (Buffalo, 1888), and "Letters upon Greece" (Marlboro, 1891). She has for years contributed articles for papers both in the East and the West, and has been president of numerous literary clubs as well as musical ones. Full of sympathy for those who are striving for education and true culture, the doors of her home are ever open to pupils of all classes in life.


BIGELOW, Miss Lettie S., author, born in Pelham, Mass., in 1849. She is the daughter of the Rev. I. B. Bigelow, an itinerant minister, for more than half a century an honored member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her early education was in the public schools of the cities and towns where her parents lived, as they were removed from place to place every two or LETTIE S. BIGELOW. three years by the decrees of the presiding bishops, according to the economy of their church. In 1866 she entered Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Mass., and remained a student there two years.