Woman of the Century/Mary Hopkins Goodrich

GOODRICH, Mrs. Mary Hopkins, originator of village improvement associations, born in Stockbridge, Mass., in 1814. Her maiden name was Hopkins. She inherited the same intellectual qualities which marked her cousin, President Mark Hopkins, of Williamstown, with others of the name hardly less distinguished. She was born with a love of nature and a humanitarian spirit She was left an orphan when barely two years old, and was brought up by older sisters. From the planting of a tree, when she was five years old, dates practically the beginning of the Village Improvement Association which has made of Stockbridge, Mass., the most perfectly kept village in the United States. After an absence of many years in the South, she returned to find the village cemetery in a neglected state, and she resolved to attempt to remedy that and other unnecessary evils, and, as far as possible, by the aid of children. To interest them she had a tree planted for every child in town, to care for themselves, and that secured their interest in what was projected and begun for the rest of the village. MARY HOPKINS GOODRICH. A wretched street known as Poverty Lane. where some of them were then living, was thus gradually transformed into one of the prettiest streets in the village. Her health was always extremely delicate, but the out-of-door life necessitated by her interest in the work of the association, which soon became incorporated, and enlisted all Stockbridge. was of great benefit. A constitution was adopted on 5th September, 1853, and amended and enlarged in scope in 1878. Miss Hopkins became the wife of Hon. T. Z. Goodrich, whose interest in the work had been hardly less than her own, and who till his death never lost it. Mrs. Goodrich is not only the mother of every village improvement society in the United States, but the unwearying helper of every one who seeks to kindle this love in children, or to rouse interest in their elders. Though owing much to wealth, she has always contended that much the same results are possible for the poor, and even in her advanced age, she is in constant correspondence with innumerable inquirers who are interested in her methods.