his young wife. Dr and Mrs. Acheson moved to Texas in 1872. During their residence in Texas Mrs. Acheson has been a moral force. Her influence has been strongly felt, not only in the city where she resides, but throughout the State. Her generous nature has been shown in heroic deeds of a kind which the world seldom sees. When a cyclone struck the village of Savoy, many of its inhabitants were badly wounded, some were killed, others made homeless. Mrs. Acheson reached them as speedily as a train could take her, doing duty as nurse and special provider for the suffering. She gave three years of active service to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was State president at a time when a strong leader was greatly needed, guiding their bark into a haven of financial safety. Her life is active along all lines of duty. She is abreast of the advanced thought of the age. The world's progress in social, scientific and religious reform is not only an open, but a well-read book, to her. Her home is in Denison, Tex.
ACKERMANN, Miss Jessie A., president of
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Australasia, born in Boston, Mass., 4th July, 1860. As befits a Fourth-of-July child, she has the ring of American independence. She is a descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers on her mother's side, and is of German extraction on her father's. Her inherited virtues and talents have been developed by liberal educational advantages. She was instructed in law, and spent much time in the study of elocution. She took a private course of study in theology, while drawing and painting and instruction in household matters were not neglected. She had the advantage of extensive travel through her native land and spent much time in the Southern States, immediately
after the close of her schooldays. At twelve years of age she was taken to a Good Templars' Lodge, where she received her first temperance teaching, and gave her first temperance talk. She began public work as grand lecturer and organizer for that society in 1881, and continued until, in 1888, the wider scope and higher spiritual tone of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with its special opportunities for work among women, won her heart, and she began to serve in its ranks. She succeeded amid extraordinary difficulties in
organizing unions at Sitka and Juneau, in Alaska. She also traveled and organized in British Columbia with success. She gladly responded to the call to go round the world, and receiving her appointment at the National Convention held in New York, in October, 1888, she sailed from San Francisco for the Sandwich Islands on 29th January, 1889. She reached Honolulu on 6th February, and was cordially welcomed at the residence of the W. C. T. U. president. The Japanese Consul-General, a cultivated Christian gentleman, president of a temperance society of 1,400 members, was much interested in her work and acted as interpreter at the meetings she held among the Japanese residents, the other foreigners and the native Hawaiians. She spent some time in the Islands. The history of her mission in New Zealand and the Australian colonies was recorded in the "Union Signal" by her letters during 1889. Successful and enthusiastic missions were held in the North and South Islands of New Zealand and in the Island of Tasmania. She visited Melbourne on the way for Adelaide. She remained two months in South Australia, traveled over the greater part of the colony, organized twenty-four local unions, called a convention in Adelaide, formed a Colonial Union, and left a membership of 1,126. Workers responded to her call in every place, and money was forthcoming for all needs. Finding the work in Victoria well organized under the care of Mrs. Love, of America,
she stayed only a few days, in which she spoke in the crowded meetings of the Victorian Alliance, which is very influential in Melbourne. Her stay in New South Wales was very brief, for she found that outside help was not at that time welcomed in that oldest and most conservative colony, although a good work was doing by the several local unions. She was most cordially welcomed to Queensland, but stayed only long enough to attend their annual convention, as the way to China and
Japan seemed open before her. A sense of duty rather than inclination took Miss Ackermann to China, but from the time she landed in Hong Kong she was well received everywhere. As there seemed no opportunity to organize in Hong Kong, she decided to proceed to Siam, by way of Swatow. Her visit to Bankok was prolonged through an
attack of malarial fever, which greatly reduced her
strength. While in that city, she obtained an
JESSIE A. ACKERMANN.
audience with His Royal Highness, Prince Diss, who is at the head of the department of education in Siam. She was also presented to His Majesty, the King of Siam, who received her graciously. She returned again to Hong Kong, on the way to Canton, which she reached by river. The northern ports of China being closed, Miss Ackermann proceeded to Japan, going to Yokohama. There she did
much work and formed a union. She next visited Tokio. A very successful mission was held at Numadza, where a union of forty members was formed. Meetings were held in Nagoya, and also under the auspices of the temperance society in Kioto, where Miss Ackermann addressed the Congregational Conference, then in session. There she also spoke in the theater to six hundred Buddhist students, on "What Christianity has done for the World." She addressed nine hundred students in the Doshisha school. Osaka was visited at the invitation of the Young Men's Christian
