Woman of the Century/Ella M. S. Marble

MARBLE, Mrs. Ella M. S., journalist and educator, born in Gorham, Me., 10th August, 1850. Left motherless at nine years of age, she was her father's housekeeper at twelve, and that position she filled until she was seventeen, attending the village school during that time. A natural aptness for study fitted her for teaching, and she taught and attended school alternately until she was married, in 1870. She has two children, a son and daughter. Losing none of her interest in educational matters, she joined the Society for the Encouragement of Study at Home, conducted by a number of educated Cambridge women, supplementing her studies ELLA M. S. MARBLE. by contributions to the leading papers and magazines of Maine and Massachusetts. In 1873 she accepted the editorial management of the juvenile department of a Maine paper. Failing health put a stop to her literary work for a time, and in starch of health she moved to the West, spending five years in Kansas and Minnesota, devoting herself almost exclusively to philanthropic and educational work. She held at one time the offices of president of the Minnesota State Suffrage Association, president of the Minneapolis Suffrage Association, seven offices in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and secretary of the White Cross movement. She was also secretary and director of a maternity hospital, which she did much toward starting. She was one of the founders of the immense Woman's Christian Temperance Union Coffee Palace in Minneapolis. Receiving, in 1888, a flattering offer from a Washington daily newspaper, she moved to the Capital to take a position upon the editorial staff. She contributed also Washington letters to eastern and western papers. railing health caused her to abandon all literary work and engage in something more active, and she turned her attention to physical culture for women. She established, in 1889, the first women's gymnasium ever opened in Washington, D. C. She also established in connection with it an emporium for healthful dress, and found great pleasure in the fact that she had surrounded herself with two-hundred-fifty women and children who, as teachers, pupils and sewing-girls, were all looking to her to guide them toward health. In 1890, and again in 1891, she was made president of the District of Columbia Woman's Suffrage Association. She was several times called by the national officers to address the committees of the House and Senate. As a public speaker she was elective. Her wide experience in philanthropic work caused her to be called frequently to fill pulpits of both orthodox and liberal churches. In 1891, having made her school of physical culture a social and financial success, she sold it and accepted the financial agency of Wimodaughsis, the national woman's club. From girlhood she has taken an active interest in any movement calculated to advance the interests of women.