Woman of the Century/Jenevehah Maria Winton

WINTON, Mrs. Jenevehah Maria, poet and author, born in Orrville, N. Y., 11th May, 1837. Her maiden name was Pray, and she belongs to a family with many branches throughout the Union. Three brothers of her father's ancestry came over JENEVEHAH MARIA WINTON. from France with Lafayette and joined the American forces. One of these gave his means and ships, another became an officer in the Continental army, and the third gave his life for the American cause. Her father, a native of Rhode Island, was educated in Oxford University, England, and became an eloquent preacher. Her mother, the daughter of an English earl and otherwise related to some of England's most exemplary' and noted nobility, was very highly educated and wrote considerable prose and poetry, some of which was published in book form, under a pen-name. Mrs Winton early began to write, and while attending Lima Seminary, Lima, N. Y., wrote much poetry. Many of her poems were printed and copied extensively, under some pen-name or unsigned, in magazines and other periodicals. In her younger years she wrote much and earned considerable means. Being then in affluent circumstances, it was her custom to give what she earned to the poor and unfortunate, in after years, when the wife of William H. Winton, and living in Indianapolis, Ind., and other cities of the West, her productions were identified and copied far and near, many of her original poems were set to music by Thomas P. Westendorf and others. For several years her residence has been in Rochester and Kingston, N. Y., where, up to the time of the death of her daughter, her manuscripts were given to the press. Since that event, which nearly took the mother's life, but few productions have been sent out. For nearly two years, to escape the rigors of a northern climate, she resided in southern New Jersey, among the rustic surroundings of her farm on Landis avenue. East Vineland More recently she has resided in New Haven, Conn. She is a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.