Representative women of New England/Laura A. G. Mattoon
LAURA A. GOODNOW MATTOON (Mrs. William P. Mattoon) was born in Boston, Mass., and comes of Puritan ancestry, being the daughter of Silas and Eliza (Pierce) Goodnow. Her mother was a well-known contralto singer. At the beginning of the Civil War her father was a manufactuter in the South; but, as he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate government, his property was confiscated and he was obliged to return North. At that time the daughter Laura A. Goodnow was attending school at the Oread Institute in Worcester. From early childhood she had shown talent for mimicry and the promise of a remarkable voice, and she now left school and became soloist in King's Chapel, Boston. Later she was soprano in a famous quartet of Springfield, Mass., and she afterward sang in Dr. Roilger's church on Fifth Avenue, New York. She was soloist in the first triennial celebration of the Handel and Haydn Society at Boston, in Music Hall, in 1865. She was also soloist for the Mendelssohn Quintet Club and for the Harvard symphony concerts. She was associated with Annie Louise Cary, Henry Clay Barnabee, Myron W. Whitney, Teresa Carrefio, and many other singers who have become famous.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, John B. Gough, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, personal friends of the family, advised her to go into opera, and she studied with this object in view, but was obliged to give up her ambition on account of the serious objections of her relatives. In 1870 she married William P. Mattoon, of Springfield, and took up her residence in that city. For years she has devoted her talents, strength, and time for charity, and, without compensation to herself, has rai,sed time after time substantial sums for the charities both of Springfield and the surrounding towns. She has sung and acted in numberless operas and plays, and has drilled the young people to put on smooth, artistic dramatic attractions. Coaching amateurs is one of her ilelights, and she is still able and willing to take part herself whenever rkecessary. Her clever work as Little Buttercup ("Pinafore") in the Springfield local opera company, of which she was manager, will never be forgotten by those who saw her in the role. She has played only for charities, and has earned for various worthy objects over twenty thousand dollars. She is a clever monologist, and her talents are shown to especial advantage in a monologue called "For Charity," written for her by Clyde Fitch.
Mr. and Mrs. Mattoon have one child, Laura Isabella Mattoon. She is a graduate of Wellesley College, has been a post-graduate student at Smith, and is now studying for her second degree at Columbia. She is at the head of the science department of the Veltin School for Girls in New York City.