Page:Women of distinction.djvu/433

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WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.
351

most admirably select organization. It seemed to be her hobby to have our boys and girls taught in industrial lines as well as otherwise, and through her efforts many were instructed through the means afforded by the Industrial Institute Association of Washington, D. C., to which she was elected president just prior to her death.

Miss Briggs was liberal with her means. While principal of Miner Normal School her salary was $1,350 per annum. She went about doing good to the needy, and withal accumulated some property, and was owner of the house in which she was born until she died.

Exercises "In Memoriam" were held by the Bethel Historical and Literary Society, Washington, D. C, May 14, 1889. At said meeting addresses were made and appropriate resolutions eulogistic of her worth were passed. A committee of nine citizens was appointed to wait upon the District Commissioners and ask that one of the school buildings then in process of erection be called the "Martha B. Briggs Building," as appreciative of her work in the community. The request was cheerfully acceded to by the honorable Commissioners, and the large building at the intersection of Virginia avenue and Twenty-second and K streets, N. W. , now principaled by one of Miss Briggs' normal graduates. Miss M. E. Gibbs, bears that name.

Appropriate exercises to her memory were also held in Howard University Chapel, where eulogies were delivered by her friends and pupils, Prof. G. W. Cook and Miss E. A. Cook. A marble tablet has been inserted in the wall of the chapel bearing the inscription, "Her works do follow her."

Mrs. R. E. Eawson.