Vermont Women's History Database

Beverly (Gayleen) Aiken started painting as a child and never stopped. Major themes in her work are the old farmhouse where she grew up, the granite industry, and musical instruments. She found a receptive audience for her work in Don Sunseri, the founder of "Grass Roots Art and Community Efforts (GRACE)," which is located in Hardwick, Vermont. GRACE provides elderly and disabled people with art materials and served as a catalyst for Aiken's introduction to a wider audience for her art. When she was nine years old, she created the Raimbilli cousins, 24 fictitious characters whose adventures she wrote and drew about. Aiken's work has been shown in major exhibits of American folk art in the US and Europe, and is in the permanent collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum of American Folk Art in Williamsburg, Virginia. She was also the subject of Jay Craven's award winning film "Gayleen", and the recipient of a Vermont Council on the Arts Fellowship. She has been featured in "Smithsonian Magazine" and is the subject of an Abrams Press book, "Moonlight and Music: The Enchanted World of Gayleen Aiken."

Artist

Lola Pierotti Aiken was the second wife of the late George D. Aiken, Governor of Vermont (1937-1940) and U.S. Senator (1940-1974). Known for her community work, Lola Aiken tirelessly supported education, the environment and community organizations. Aiken was born on June 24, 1912, in Montpelier, Vermont, the daughter of a stonecutter who emigrated from Italy. She graduated from Montpelier High School in 1930 and volunteered for George Aiken's U.S. Senate campaign. When he was elected, she moved to Washington, D.C., in 1941 to work in his Congressional office. Once there, she worked her way up from being the lowest paid staff member to Administrative Assistant and Staff Manager. She used her connections in Vermont to advance the Senator's efforts in office, and on June 30, 1967, she and Senator George Aiken were married. When Senator Aiken retired from office in 1975, the couple returned to Vermont. Aiken was a long-term supporter of the University of Vermont and served on The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Board of Advisors. She was a member of the George D. Aiken Lecture Series Board of Directors and a sponsor of the Lola Aiken Award in Natural Resources at UVM. Aiken received an honorary degree from the University of Vermont in 1975. She served on the Board of Directors for the Vermont Historical Society, the Calvin Coolidge Foundation, the Ethan Allen Homestead, Rockingham Meeting House and the Judicial Conduct Board. She was also involved with the New England Culinary Institute Scholarship Committee, Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice, and Friends of the Statehouse. In 2002 she won Norwich University's Board of Fellow's Medallion Award and in 2005 she was presented with the Governor's Award for Outstanding Community Service Vermont Lifetime Achievement Award. Aiken Hall, at Champlain College, was named in honor of Lola Aiken because of her dedication to the college. She served as a trustee for eighteen years at Champlain College, was an advocate of the Single Parents Program, and provided leadership for capital campaigns. Aiken was presented with an Honorary Degree from Champlain College in 2007. In 2008 she was honored at the Vermont Historical Society's Annual Legislative Reception in Montpelier. She died on September 8, 2014, in Montpelier.

Montpelier High School (1930)

Secretary of State's Office U.S. Senate Staff, 1941-1975

Aiken, George David (1892-1984), Aiken, Lola Pierotti (1912-2014)

Frances "Fanny" Allen was the daughter of Ethan Allen and Frances Montresor Buchanan Allen. Her father died when she was only five years old, so her mother took her and her siblings to Westminster, Vermont. There, her mother was remarried to Dr. Jabez Penniman. In 1807, when she was twenty-three, she asked permission of her parents to spend a year in Montreal, Canada studying French. She was admitted as a boarder with the French Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. Allen quickly announced to her family that she had joined the Catholic Church and wished to be a nun. In 1808 she entered a nursing order, the Religious Hospitalers of St. Joseph, as a novice. Three years later, in 1811, she took her final vows and became the fifth New Englander to enter a Canadian religious order. She spent the rest of her life nursing the sick although she was officially the hospital chemist. She died of consumption at the age of thirty-five, in 1819, and was entombed in the Hospital of the Hotel Dieu in Montreal. In 1894, six Sisters from the Religious Hospitalers of St. Joseph established the Fanny Allen Hospital, in Colchester, Vermont, in her memory.

Middlebury Seminary

Sister of the Religious Hospitalers of St. Joseph

Allen, Ethan (1738-1789), Allen, Frances Montresor Brush Buchanan (1760-1834)

A Nun for Two Nations, Fanny Allen, The First American Nun

Frances Montresor Buchanan, also known as Fanny, was very interested in botany and was an accomplished musician who grew up in New York City. She married John Buchanan, a Naval Officer, in 1776. He died during the American Revolution, leaving her a twenty-four year old widow. She met Ethan Allen in 1784 and they were married on February 7, 1784. After Ethan Allen's death in 1789, she and her children moved back to her mother's home in Westminster, Vermont. Her union with Allen resulted in three children: Fanny, Hannibal, and Ethan. She later married her third husband, Judge Jabez Penniman, in 1792.

Allen, Ethan (1738-1789)

Buchanan, John (d.1783)

Green Mountain Women

Jerusha Hayden Enos Allen married Ira Allen on September 13, 1789. When she became engaged, her father, General Roger Enos, required that there be a marriage settlement. The township of Irasburg was deeded to her as that settlement and Allen remarked that, "she did not at that time consider it worth a rush." She had three children: Ira Hayden, Zimri Allen, and Maria Juliette. At one point, she and Ira owned 20,000 to 30,000 acres of land, seven mills, two forges, and a ferry above the Winooski River. As a result of bad business dealings and extended trips, the Allen's eventually lost all of their land holdings except the town of Irasburg. In 1810, Jerusha Allen moved to Irasburg while Ira Allen was in jail in Philadelphia. For over twenty years, she conducted business as a deputy husband and took sole responsibility of the family during her husbands' absences. When she died in 1838, she left behind an estate worth $500,000 and the land was given to her only surviving heir, Ira H. Allen.

Allen, Ira (1751-1814)

Green Mountain Women

Julia Alvarez was born in New York City, but moved to the Dominican Republic at the age of three months. She and her family returned to the United States when she was ten. She decided to become a writer while in high school, and orginially pursued poetry before switching to prose. Her most recognized novel, "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents", for which she won the PEN Oakland/ Josephine Mills Award,was published in 1990. Her second novel, "In the Time of the Butterflies", was made into a feature film produced by and starring Salma Hayek. Alvarez's other books include: "Saving the World", "A Gift of Gracias", "Finding Miracles", "The Woman I Kept to Myself", "Before We were Free", "A Cafecito Story", "How T'a Lola Came to Visit/Stay", "The Secret Footprints", "In the Name of Salom?", "Something to Declare", "Yo!", "Homecoming: New and Collected Poems", and "The Other Side/El Otro Lado". Her work continues to be praised for its significance to Hispanic culture and to Hispanic women in particular. Alvarez has won numerous awards and citations for her work. She is currently a writer in residence at Middlebury College and owns a sustainable farm-literacy center in the Dominican Republic.

BA, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT (1969-71) MA in Creative Writing, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY (1973-75)

Author Writer in Residence at Middlebury College Business owner

Mary Annette Anderson was born in Shoreham, Vermont, to William and Philomine Anderson. William, a farmer, was formerly enslaved in Virginia and Philomine was of French and Native American descent. Mary graduated Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies in Massachusetts and entered Middlebury College in 1895. She was valedictorian of the Middlebury class of 1899 and became the first African-American woman to be inducted into the national honors society, Phi Beta Kappa. After college, Anderson moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she taught at Straight College for one year. She then went to Washington, D.C. as professor of English grammar and history at Howard University. Upon her marriage to Walter Louis Smith in 1907, Anderson stopped teaching, as was custom in society at that time. The couple eventually bought a home in Shoreham, Vermont, where Anderson died in 1922.

Northfield Seminary Middlebury College (1899)

Professor, Straight College Professor, Howard University

Mary Perle Anderson was born to Ira Stone Anderson and Elvina Perley in East Berkshire, Vermont. Mary Anderson had two elder siblings, a sister, Annette, and a brother, Wilbert. Anderson attended grade school in her hometown, East Berkshire. It is believed that she attended high school in St. Albans as her brother Wilbert did. She started teaching at the age of fourteen just outside East Berkshire in the town of Samsonville, Vermont. Mary Anderson received her Bachelor of Science degree from Mount Holyoke College, MA, and her Masters degree in 1908, at the age of 44, from Columbia University in NYC, NY. She also attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1899, Woods Hole in 1900, University of Chicago from 1903-1904. Her studies took her abroad to the Kew Botanical Gardens in London, England and the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, France. Anderson was supervisor of nature study at Presbyterian College in Independence, MO from 1890-1894. After that, she taught schools in Plymouth and Somerville, Vermont from 1894-1902. She again became supervisor of nature study, but this time at the University School for Girls in Chicago, IL. She taught botany at Mount Holyoke College from 1904-1906, and was teacher of nature study at the Horace Mann School of Teachers College (Columbia University) in NYC. Mary Perle Anderson was not only a scholar and professor, but also a writer. In a 1904 competition, sponsored by the New York Botanical Gardens and Wildflower Preservation Society of America, she won first prize for her essay "The Protection of Our Nature Plants," and again in 1909 for her essay "The Passing of the Wild Flowers." In 1912, Mary Anderson started The Bluebird Camp in East Berkshire. It was a camp for city children to spend their summers experiencing and learning about nature. The camp ran from 1912-1915 at Anderson's childhood home. In 1917, she returned home and lived out the rest of her life there. She helped her brother, Wilbert Lee Anderson, write his book "The Country Town: A Study of Rural Evolution." She had a huge impact on his appreciation of rural life. She also joined the Vermont Department of Education in promoting school gardens. Mary Anderson died in East Berkshire in 1945. She is buried in the Congregational Cemetery in East Berkshire, VT. She truly was a pioneer in environmental studies.

BS, Mount Holyoke College (1890) MS, Columbia University (1908)

Environmental studies and nature studies teacher Classroom teacher Writer Environmentalist

Consuelo Northrop Bailey was born on the Northrop family farm in Fairfield in 1899. She attended high school in St. Albans and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1921. Bailey later entered Boston University Law School, graduating in 1925. Bailey was the seventh Vermont woman to be admitted to the Vermont bar (1926). She was the Chittenden County State's Attorney from 1927-1931, making her one of the first elected prosecutors in the country. She was the first woman to try (and win) a murder case in Vermont. She was also the first Vermont woman to be admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court. As State's Attorney, Bailey was an adamant prohibitionist and recommended heavy sentences for convicted criminals. Consuelo Bailey served as Chittenden County State Senator for one term before becoming executive secretary for U.S. Senator Ernest W. Gibson in Washington from 1931-1937. Here she met many national political figures, including President Herbert Hoover and New York Governor and presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey. In 1934, Bailey was elected Vice-Chairman of the Republican State Committee. From 1936 to 1976, Consuelo Bailey represented Vermont on the Republican National Committee. In 1941, Consuelo Bailey married fellow lawyer and Republican activist, H. Albon Bailey. Albon Bailey was the first mayor of Winooski after its separation from Colchester in 1923. Together they set up the law firm of Bailey and Bailey in Burlington. As South Burlington's elected representative to the Vermont Legislature, Bailey ran a tireless grassroots campaign in 1953 that led to her victory in being elected as Speaker of the House. In 1954 Consuelo Bailey won the election for Lieutenant Governor, making her the first woman in the country to be elected to this office. Bailey chose not to run for the governor's seat. After leaving office, she cared for her husband who had Parkinson's disease. Consuelo Northrop Bailey was involved in many charitable organizations throughout her life. She stayed active in the Republican Party until her death in 1976. At this time, she had finished her autobiography, "Leaves Before the Wind", which was published after her death. Bailey bequeathed to the Town of Fairfield monies to build The Bent Northrop Memorial Library which opened in 1988. Bailey also left behind a vast amount of correspondence which is now located at the University of Vermont Special Collections Library. Her papers serve not only as a valuable political record, but also give an extensive account of women's lives during this time through personal correspondence with her mother and sisters. Throughout Consuelo Northrop Bailey's lifetime, she ran for political office 24 times and won every one.

UVM (1921) Boston University School of Law (1925)

Lawyer Politician

Georgia (Wells Stearns) Balch was a teenager when she emigrated with her family from Frelighsberg, Quebec, Canada to Johnson, VT, where her parents bought and ran the local hotel. The ebullient teenager was educated in local schools, and had a passion for "dabbling in watercolor" when she married the town's most eligible bachelor in 1914, Chester Arthur Stearns. They settled in a grand home on Stearns Street (Vermont Route 100C), built by her new in-laws as their wedding present to the young couple. Within four years, the Stearns had a baby daughter, Joyce, and soon thereafter, Chester Arthur died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. To cope with her loss and grief, Balch took her young child and went to Kansas City to study art, presumably at the Kansas City Art Institute, which was a thriving art school at the time. Her studies enhanced her passion and focus as an artist which never dimmed throughout the rest of her life. After Georgia and Joyce returned to Johnson, Georgia married Roman Balch, who ran her father-in-law's business, and she ran the household and painted for the rest of her life. A small sign was erected in front of the house, reading "Paintings of Vermont by Georgia Balch," and a form of cultural tourism was born! Tourists from all over, motoring through Vermont, stopped at the Balch household in Johnson to buy Georgia's oil paintings of the Vermont landscape - many of which she painted en plein air, and others of which she painted from photographs she took when one of her relatives would take her for a ride, often creating composites of a particular scene. Her family remembers that Balch was equally at home in her studio and in her kitchen, and had the ability to switch intense concentration from one to another smoothly, including the interruptions of her grandsons. Balch often made meals for visiting artists, and treats for the tourists. One story the family recounts with fondness has the famous American artist, landscape painter Emile Gruppe, coming by for dinner, and going into Balch's studio while she cooked. He finished the painting on her easel for her, which amused her for the rest of her life! Unfortunately, a record of which painting has been lost, but it was probably sold, as Georgia sold most of her paintings. The gallery at Johnson State College gave her a major exhibition in the late 1970's. When Balch's hands became too arthritic for her to paint, she switched to stitching landscapes in yarn - "Yarn Paintings," she called them for which she likewise developed a following. Balch died in 1981 at age 92.

Artist

Bankowski was born in Boston, Massachusetts and is a graduate of Boston College. She continued her education by taking courses at Boston College Law School. For ten years she served as a legislative aide to Congressman Father Drinan in Washington, D.C. She managed Madeleine Kunin's successful campaign for Governor in 1984 and became the Secretary of Civil and Military Affairs for the State. She also served as Governor Kunin's Chief of Staff, the top aide to the Governor from 1985-1989. Bankowski left her position in 1989 to spend more time with her family, but continued to work for the Governor part-time. She was a member of the transition team for President-elect Bill Clinton in 1992, where she was an advisor on economic issues, particularly audits of federal agencies. She served as Senior Director of Social Mission Development for Ben and Jerry's from 1991 to 2001 and was a member of the company's Board of Directors until 1999. Bankowski was involved with the start-up of the organization Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and served on the board of the Social Venture Network, a national organization of entrepreneurs and philanthropists. She serves on the Green Mountain Power Board of Directors, has been a trustee of Bennington College and the Windham Foundation and is a board member of the Trust Company of Vermont. Bankowski served as Co-chair of Gaye Symington's 2008 run for Governor. She was active in the administration of Peter Shumlin. She is currently the president and CEO of the Windham Foundation.

Boston College Boston College Law School

Madeleine Kunin's campaign manager (1984) Secretary of Civil and Military Affairs Governor's Chief of Staff Executive

Isabel Hayes Chapin Barrows was a woman of many firsts - first woman to work as a stenographer for Congress; first woman to become private secretary to a head of the United States State Department; first woman eye doctor and one of the first woman editors to win fame as a social reformer. Born in Irasburg, Vermont on April 17, 1845, Barrows was the third child of Dr. and Mrs. Hayes. She was two when the family moved to Hartland. Barrows' two older sisters, Lizzie (died when Isabel was ten) and Hattie and a younger brother and sister, Willie and Ephie, were raised in a comfortable home and loving atmosphere. The children were expected to share in household tasks and the many chores involved in subsistence farming. Along with those responsibilities, the children also attended a local school and were fortunate enough to have their recitation and written school assignments further augmented by music lessons from their mother. At the age of eleven, Barrows often accompanied and assisted her father with his medical house calls. Her parents were forward-thinking and impressed upon all of their children the value of a good education and the recognition of one's abilities regardless of male or female, "Your mother and I both believe girls should do whatever they're capable of doing..." It was shortly thereafter that an incident at school, in which young Willie was falsely accused of a disturbance in class and subjected to corporal punishment, prompted the Hayes family to locate a new practice for Dr. Hayes and a new school for the children. They found both across the border in Londonderry (Derry), New Hampshire. Barrows enjoyed her studies, first at the Pinkerton Academy and then at the newly reopened Adams Academy, where she earned her tuition by performing janitorial duties (sweeping, laying three fires each day and ringing the school bell every morning at eight) before and after classes. After graduating from Adams Academy in June, 1862, Barrows accepted an invitation from her friend, Charlotte Chapin, for a visit to Andover, Massachusetts. It was during this visitation that she met her soon-to-be husband, William Chapin, Charlotte's brother and a student at Andover Theological Seminary. While William finished his studies, Barrows prepared to teach botany classes at Mount Holyoke. However, her mother's struggle with tuberculosis had taken a turn for the worse and Barrows headed home to help with her care. On September 26, 1863 Barrows married William Chapin in Derry, New Hampshire - Barrows' mother died a few days later. After the funeral, Barrows prepared herself for her husband's first missionary assignment - ten years in India. Once there, she immersed herself in the language and customs of the area. Barrows transformed a mud-walled house into a welcoming home and soon after found herself pregnant with their first child. Unfortunately, she suffered a miscarriage and weeks later Chapin himself succumbed to diphtheria. In the Spring of 1865, a broken-hearted Barrows returned to New York. At loose ends in New York City, Barrows checked in with the Office of the Missionary Board and soon connected with her brother, Will, who was then working for Dr. James Caleb Jackson in his medicine-free health sanatorium in Dansville, New York. Eager to someday return to the mission field as a physician, Barrows accepted a position with Dr. Jackson and assisted with foot baths, bath service and breakfast trays for bedridden patients. It was here where she met her second husband, Samuel June Barrows, Dr. Jackson's secretary and also inventor of his own personal shorthand method. After an unexpected breakfast conversation, it was clear that Samuel's eventual hope was to be a Unitarian minister, while Barrows still longed to study medicine. Because neither had the means to get married, they instead arranged a betrothal ceremony in which they promised to financially and emotionally support each other as they worked to achieve their respective personal goals. During this betrothal period, Samuel worked as a shorthand reporter, taking notes on lectures in shorthand and then transcribing them for various New York newspapers, and soon encouraged Barrows to give paid talks on her experiences in India in churches and Sunday schools. Barrows also began to assist her betrothed, by clipping items from the afternoon editions and rewriting them for the morning papers. This last undertaking was soon expedited by Barrows’s mastering Samuel’s shorthand techniques. At this time in order to further her education, Barrows also applied to Bellevue Hospital as a medical student. Even though she was informed that they did not accept women into the medical program, she asked and was allowed to sit in on lectures and classes, with the understanding that she, most likely, would not receive permission to actually graduate. Despite initial harassment and uncomfortable classroom situations, Barrows soon proved herself to be a competent and worthy student of medicine. On June 28, 1867, Barrows was married to Samuel June Barrows by Unitarian minister Henry Ward Beecher at Beecher’s home in Brooklyn. Simultaneous with their wedding, Samuel was offered a job in Washington as private secretary to William Henry Seward, Secretary of State -- the newly-married couple could not refuse the $1600 annual salary. Barrows continued to study anatomy and shorthand on her own and taught the infant class in a mission school for black children. Later that hot, tropical summer, Samuel came down with typhoid and Barrows became, out of necessity, the first woman to work in the State Department. When Samuel eventually returned to his position later that summer, Barrows resumed her medical studies at the Woman’s Medical College in New York City, founded by Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, and later attended and graduated from the University of Vienna Medical School. Upon achieving her medical degree, Barrows opened an office on F Street and performed eye examinations, cataract surgeries and prescribed glasses. She worked afternoons at the Freedmens Hospital or taking shorthand notes in Congressional Committee meetings at the Capitol while Samuel finished his divinity studies. Their lives were soon changed again with the arrival of their only daughter, Mabel Hay Barrows, in 1873. After a family trip to Europe in 1875, Samuel received his first post as pastor at Meeting House Hill. In 1880, Samuel left his pastorate for the Editors position at The Christian Register, with Barrows as Associate Editor. The paper generated a wide variety of local, national, and foreign news articles and controversial issues of the time. Daily luncheons were instituted for collaboration with potential contributors and supporters; problems were aired and solutions unfolded. In 1885, Barrows and her husband adopted their nephew, William Burnet Barrows, infant son of Barrows’ brother, Will, whose wife had died in Kansas during childbirth. It was also at this time that Barrows was struck by a brainstorm to have a summer camp for their children and friends from other nations. The location for their camp was ten miles from the little town of Magog, Canada on the banks of Lake Memphremagog. For more than twenty-five years the Barrows family returned to their camp each summer and shared food, lodging, bonfires, games, plays and conversations with children and adults from different parts of the United States and Europe. As the years passed, Mabel was married to Henry Raymond Mussey, a professor at New York University, at the family’s summer camp, Samuel served one term as Congressman from Massachusetts and Barrows was actively involved with The National Conference of Charities and Correction, The Prison Association of New York and secretary of the Lake Mohonk Conference (Indian affairs). She also traveled to Russia to try and intercede on behalf Catherine Breshkovski, the little woman of the Russian Revolution, who had been imprisoned in solitary confinement for two years prior to her trial, sent to Siberia and then spent twenty more years in exile, only to be imprisoned again -- for the crime of teaching the peasants on her estates to read. In 1909, while Barrows was in Russia, Samuel died of pneumonia. She returned home for the funeral and then decided to return to Russia to complete her unfinished task. Sadly, however, Barrows was unable to convince the Russian Minister of the Interior to release the old and frail Breshkovski. She returned to the United States and at her children’s request wrote the biography of Samuel James Barrows, "A Sunny Life", and collaborated on "The Little Grandmother of the Russian Revolution" with her niece, Alice Stone Blackwell, daughter of womens rights activist Lucy Stone. Barrows unpublished autobiography, "Chopped Straw or The Memories of Threescore Years", was an unexpected, but useful, source for Madeleine B. Sterns biography of Barrows, "So Much In A Lifetime: The Story of Dr. Isabel Barrows." In 1913, the year Barrows biography of Samuel was published, Mabel gave birth to a son named June, in honor of Samuel’s middle name. On October 25th of that same year, Barrows died in Mabels’ arms.

MD, University of Vienna Medical School

Missionary Congressional Stenographer Reporter Editor Eye Doctor

The daughter of lawyer William Batchelder and Elizabeth Kennedy, Ann was tutored as a child before attending Bishop Hopkins Hall in Burlington at the age of 10. By 1900 her family had moved to Woodstock, where she explored career options as a teacher, a bank clerk, and a legal assistant. For several years she lived in Springfield working as a reporter for the Springfield Reporter and subsequently took various jobs in journalism, including police reporter for the Boston Herald and Boston Globe. During this period, she also expanded her legal training by “reading the law.” Batchelder became involved in the suffrage movement in 1917 as publicity chair for the Woodstock Suffrage Study Club. Following the achievement of municipal suffrage for women in Vermont, Batchelder became the first woman in the state to be elected as town grand juror in 1918. She used her legal training to prosecute her first case the next year. During the final campaign to ratify the 19th amendment in Vermont, Batchelder worked closely with organizer Lillian Olzendam of Woodstock. They gathered petitions statewide, educated the public through the press, lobbied legislators, and sought to persuade anti-suffrage Governor Percival W. Clement to call the legislature into special session to approve the amendment, which he refused to do. Batchelder’s fascination with food and cooking stemmed from her early childhood when she caught and cooked a trout on a fishing trip with her father. She began marketing jams through “Ann’s Jam Kitchen,” in a project launched with Lillian Olzendam in 1917. For several years during the 1920s she operated an inn in Hatfield, MA. before she was hired as a food editor at "The Delineator" magazine in 1928. When the publication ceased operation in 1934, the Curtis Publishing Co. hired Batchelder as associate editor of the "Ladies Home Journal." Ann, also known as Anna, Batchelder became a household name in the 1930s and 1940s when her popular food articles, recipes, and “Line a Day” tips sparked her celebrity as an American journalist. Writing with considerable spunk and humor about food and daily life, she received an outpouring of mail from Americans eager to share their domestic frustrations while seeking her culinary advice. A spritely writer and lover of poetry, she published several popular books including: "East of Bridgewater and Other Poems" (1943), "Ann Batchelder’s Own Cookbook" (1941), and "Start to Finish" (1954). In 1950, Bowling Green State University awarded Batchelder an honorary degree in recognition of her journalistic career. During this period, Batchelder wintered in New York City near her office at Rockefeller Center, where her staff multiplied quickly to handle her voluminous correspondence. She returned to her home in Woodstock Village in summer, often speaking locally about her career and her love of Vermont. In 1942 Batchelder broke her hip, which hardly interrupted her career but confined her to a wheelchair for the remainder of her life. After World War II, Batchelder met and befriended Italian refugee Lisa Sergio, a former interpreter for Mussolini. One of the first women to become a European news commentator, Sergio had joined the National Broadcasting Co.; eventually, she taught international affairs at Columbia University. Her status as an enemy alien prompted Batchelder to adopt Sergio as her daughter. After Sergio was accused of being a “Red Sympathizer” and blacklisted during the McCarthy Era, Batchelder spent the next few years attempting to clear her name. The two women returned permanently to Woodstock in 1952, three years before her death at age 74.

Honorary Degree, Bowling Green University (1950)

Suffragist, Author

Edna Louise Beard was the first Vermont woman to be elected to the Vermont House of Representatives and to the Vermont Senate. Three months after the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920 giving women suffrage, Beard took office as Representative from the town of Orange. Previously, Beard had spent 16 years as town treasurer (from 1912-1928). She had also served as superintendent of the Barre town schools, an office she took in 1906. Initially, Beard lost the Republican primary for the 1920 election to Burt L. Richardson. However, she ran in the general election on the "Citizen's Party" and won. Beard served one term in the House. As Representative, Beard's first enacted bill raised compensation for single mothers. In 1923, Edna Beard became the first woman to be elected to the Vermont Senate. Here she was chair of the Library Committee. Her first successful bill as Senator made it possible for county sheriffs to hire women deputies. When Beard first took office in Montpelier in 1921, she was a 44 year-old housewife from Orange, a town of about 500 people. In the years following women's suffrage, women were increasingly represented in the Legislature. Before "reapportionment" in 1960, every town in Vermont sent one representative to Montpelier. In the smaller agricultural communities, women were often more able to give their time without pay to serve in the legislature.

Politician Legislator School Superintendent Town Treasurer

Mollie Beattie was born in Glen Cove, New York on April 27, 1947. She received a BA in Philosophy from Marymount College in 1968 and a MS in Forestry from the University of Vermont in 1979. She also earned a Master's degree in public administration from Harvard University in 1991. From 1983 to 1985, Beattie was Program Director and Lands Manager for the Windham Foundation, which seeks to "preserve and enhance the social, economic, and cultural activities of Vermont's communities and rural life." She left her position there to become Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation until 1989. As Commissioner, she administrated public lands, managed wildlife habitat areas, and operated 48 state parks. From 1989 to 1990, she served as Deputy Secretary of Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources, where she was responsible for fish and wildlife, forestry, public lands, water quality, and energy issues. Beattie also served as Project Director for an experimental game bird habitat program, taught resource management to private landowners for the University of Vermont Extension Service, and was Executive Director of the Richard A. Snelling Center for Government. In 1993, she became the first female director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, a position she held until her death in 1996. She was responsible for the wildlife service's 7,000 employees and an annual budget of $501 million. The agency enforces wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act and carries out wetland protection and management. As director, Beattie added 15 national wildlife refuges to the system, established 140 habitat conservation plans and began the development for an additional 300. She defended the Endangered Species Act against attacks from Republicans in Congress, fought to maintain the agency's budget, and supported having gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park. She also created the first National Wildlife Refuge Week to increase public awareness about the refuge system. After her death from brain cancer on June 27, 1996, two areas in the United States were named in honor of her. The Mollie Beattie Coastal Habitat Community is located on Mustang Island in Texas and encompasses 1,000 acres. President Clinton signed the Mollie Beattie Wilderness Area Act on July 29, 1996, which named an eight million acre wilderness in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after her. He said, "It ensures that future generations will recall the lasting contributions Mollie made to conserving our Nation's priceless natural heritage."

BA in Philosophy, Marymount College (1968) MS in Forestry, University of Vermont (1979) Masters in Public Administration, Harvard University (1991)

Vermont Commissioner of Parks, Forests, and Recreation Land Manager and Program Director of the Windham Foundation University of Vermont Extension Service Director of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service

Hilda Belcher, daughter of Martha Wood and Stephen Belcher, was born in Pittsford, Vermont in 1881 and died in Pittsford in 1963 at age 82. During her lifetime, Hilda Belcher was considered among the country's leading portrait and genre painters in both oil and in watercolor, profiling not only specific individuals, but also capturing the cultural milieu of their surroundings and their time. Born in Vermont, Hilda was educated in Newark, New Jersey (she was valedictorian of her high school class) and in New York City at the Chase School, and in Italy. Like many of her contemporaries, Hilda found a mentor in Robert Henri, about whom she wrote, "He was merciless, but I began to see the light, worked like a dog, and came back to life." Hilda made her living from the sale of her work, selling illustrations and cartoons to magazines such as Harper's and Women's Home Companion and designing stain glass windows for her family's business. She was the recipient of many prizes and commissions, including the coveted "Strathmore Watercolor Prize," about which the New York Times wrote "Girl Painter Wins Prize from 692 Men Competitors." She lived in New York City and Savannah, Georgia, was the second woman elected to the National Academy of Design, and in 1936, the New York Times called her "one of the most distinguished women artists in America." Travel was high on Hilda's agenda, always painting while she traveled, and of particular note wase her tour of Europe with her mother, shortly before the outbreak of World War I. When ill health forced her to settle in one place, she went to live with her brother in New Jersey, but continued to came home to the family home in Pittsford every summer, where her volumes of studies of her feline companions give witness to the humor and tenderness her family remembers to this day. During her lifetime, Hilda Belcher's work was featured in one person exhibitions all over the country, and is in the permanent collections of many public art collections, including the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Loeb Art Center as Vassar College, and the Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont. Middlebury College awarded her an Honorary Degree, reflecting her conviction about herself, that she "always felt herself a thorough-going Vermonter."

Chase School of Art Art Student's League

Artist

Jessie Bigwood was born in Plattsburgh, NY and grew up on Loomis St. in Burlington. She attended secretarial school at Burlington Business College and worked as a government reporter at Fort Ethan Allen in Colchester/Essex, VT. She went on to study law through a special course at Boston University and at the office of V.A. Bullard in Burlington. She later had her own office in Burlington for several years. Jessie Bigwood became the fist female attorney to pass the Vermont bar exam in 1902. No woman was admitted to the Vermont Bar for another 10 years, and it would be another 18 years after that before the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. When Bigwood won her first case at Chittenden County Superior Court, the local newspaper reported that she "was not in the business for fun". In 1907, Bigwood was chosen as the "Worthy Grand Matron" of the Vermont Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, a fraternal charity organization. Jessie Bigwood married Frederick H. Bigwood in 1898. In 1908, they moved to Toronto.

Burlington Business College Boston University School of Law

Lawyer

Sylvia Hortense Bliss was born in Toledo, Ohio to Elmina Marsh and Warren Earl Bliss, both of whom were originally from East Calais, Vermont. She was eldest of four children and spent her childhood in Des Moines, Iowa. Bliss studied music in Iowa and spent two years at Syracuse University studying with private teachers. In 1885, the family returned to East Calais, where Bliss would spend the majority of her life. In addition to giving piano lessons and being the church organist, Bliss was also a self-taught botanist. She gave her 400 specimen herbarium to Montpelier's Kellogg-Hubbard Library, but it was lost in the 1927 flood. Bliss's first published writings were short stories that appeared in the Vermont Watchman and State Gazette and The Vermonter: The State Magazine. She also contributed poetry and prose to Driftwood, a literary journal. While receiving treatment for a speech handicap, Bliss researched and published articles such as "The Origin of Laughter," and "The Significance of Clothes," for the American Journal of Psychology and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. She is the author of two books of poetry: "Quests, Poems in Prose" (1920) and "Sea Level" (1922). Forest K. Davis collected the majority of her work and published it as "Uncut Leaves" in 1990. Davis also wrote a biography of Bliss, "Bird of Utica: Life, Thought and Art of Sylvia H. Bliss, 1870-1963" and donated the Bliss papers to the Vermont Historical Society, where they can be viewed today. Bliss lived with her parents until their deaths, and then moved to Rochester, Vermont to stay with her brother, Clifford, and his wife Lou until her own death in 1963.

Syracuse University

Musician Botanist Author Poet

Sara Gear Boyd was a Republican leader in the Vermont State Legislature and secretary of the Republican National Committee. She was a graduate of the University of Vermont and taught junior high school and nursery school. Boyd was also the founder of two businesses: Impeccable Interiors in 1977 and Gear Country Designs in 1982. In 1984, Boyd entered Vermont state politics and was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives. She served as both the Minority and Majority Leader in the House before being elected to the Vermont State Senate in 1992, where she served as Assistant Majority Leader. In 1994, she became the Senate Majority Leader, making her the first woman in the United States to be elected Majority Leader in both chambers of a state legislature. She did not run for re-election in 1996. Boyd was a member of the Executive Committee of the Vermont State Republican Party and served on the Colchester Town, Chittenden County, and Vermont State Republican Committees. In 2000, Boyd was appointed to the Vermont Hearing Panel for Professional Responsibility of the Vermont Bar Association. Boyd also played important roles in national politics. She was elected Republican National Committeewoman for Vermont in 1992 and served on the Executive, Budget, and Rules Committees. She was re-elected for this position in the years since then, but did not seek re-election in 2008. Boyd served as the Vice Chairman of the 1996 Republican National Convention, Co-chairman of the 1996 Republican Platform Committee and was a delegate to the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 Conventions. In 2003, Boyd was appointed Commissioner of the White House Fellows by President George W. Bush and was elected Secretary of the Republican National Committee. She also served as the Secretary of the 2004 Republican National Convention. In addition to serving Vermont and the United States politically, Boyd remained committed to education and community development. Boyd founded the Vermont Opportunity Scholarship Fund in 1998, which is "the first privately funded scholarship in the country offering public and private school choice to income eligible children." She was a trustee of Covenant Health Systems and the Fanny Allen Foundation. She was a former Director of the following organizations: Vermont Federal Bank, Fanny Allen Hospital, Fletcher Allen Health Care, Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, Vermont Adult Learning, Vermont Association of Business, Industry and Rehabilitation, Saint Michael's College President's Advisory Council, The Senate Presidents Forum, the National Council of Insurance Legislators, and the Council of State Government: Eastern Region. Boyd served six years as Burlington Police Commissioner and was a member of the Rotary Club and the University of Vermont Alumni Council. Boyd's first husband, Allen F. Gear, died in 1991. She was re-married in 1999 to Joseph Boyd. Sara Gear Boyd died on June 10, 2008 after a struggle with cancer. She is survived by her husband and three daughters.

University of Vermont (1963)

Nursery School and Junior High School teacher Business owner - Impeccable Interiors and Gear Country Designs Vermont House of Representatives Vermont State Senate

Myra Colby Bradwell was the first woman born in Vermont to become a lawyer after a long battle. Starting in 1869 she took her fight from the Superior Court of Chicago to the United States Supreme Court, where the original ruling against her was upheld in 1873. In 1890, the Supreme Court reversed itself and she was finally admitted to the Illinois State Bar. Bradwell was also the founder of the Chicago Legal News, the first paper in Illinois devoted solely to legal news. Myra Colby was born in Manchester, Vermont to Eben and Abigail Colby. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Portage, New York and then headed west to Chicago. She attended school in Kenosha, Wisconsin and the Elgin Female Seminary in Elgin, Illinois where she obtained a teaching job after graduation. In 1852, she married James Bolesworth Bradwell, and moved with him to Nashville, Tennessee, where the couple taught at their own school. James Bradwell was admitted to the Tennessee Bar and Myra started studying with him before they returned to Chicago, where James was admitted to the Illinois Bar, appointed a county probate judge and elected as a state legislator. Bradwell launched her own career in 1868 with the weekly Chicago Legal News, the first paper in Illinois devoted solely to legal news. She served as editorial and business manager of the paper and it quickly "became the most important legal publication in the western United States." The Chicago Fire of October 1871 destroyed the Bradwell's home, their law library, and the Chicago Legal News. However, her daughter had saved the subcription book, and within a few weeks, Bradwell had the Chicago Legal News up and running again. Bradwell had been studying the law for years with her husband, and in 1869 she passed the qualifying exam and applied to the Illinois Supreme Court for admission to the state bar, but was refused because she was a married woman. She appealed the case and took it to the United States Supreme Court, but in Bradwell v. Illinois (1873), the Court upheld the original ruling. In the meantime, the state of Illinois opened up all professions to women in 1872. Bradwell did not reapply for admission to the bar, but the Illinois Supreme Court took up her application again in 1890, admitted her to the bar and two years later she was given permission to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. An advocate of women's rights, Bradwell helped organize Chicago's first woman suffrage convention. At this convention she argued for suffrage, women's right to own property, sit on juries, and be admitted to law school. She was also active in the founding of the American Woman Suffrage Association and was a representative of Illinois at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. Bradwell was a member of the Soldiers' Home Board, the Chicago Women's Club, the Illinois Women's Press Association, served as treasurer of the South Evanston Industrial School and was a delegate to the Prison Reform Congress in St. Louis. Bradwell died in 1894.

Elgin Female Seminary

Teacher Lawyer

Louvenia Dorsey Bright was born in Chicago and educated in Michigan. A life-long educator, she took a teaching position in Colchester when her husband was hired as a professor of education at UVM. She eventually joined the UVM faculty as an associate professor of education. Bright ran for, and won, the district 6-3 seat representing South Burlington in the Vermont legislature. She became the first black woman to hold a seat in the Vermont legislature. And, along with Francis Brooks, was one of only two African-Americans in the legislature at the time. She served until 1994 when her family moved to Illinois.

B.S. and M.Ed., Wayne State University (1964, 1971) CAS, UVM (1987)

Educator Politician

City

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

Jeanne Brink is an Abenaki artist and activist in Vermont. She is from the Obomsawin family of Thompson's Point, VT and Odanak Reserve, Quebec. Her relatives were accomplished basketmakers who practiced their craft until 1959. She was an apprentice basketmaker with the Vermont Folklife Center's Traditional Arts Program and learned the traditional art of basketry. Her baskets, made of white ash and sweetgrass, have been shown throughout the Northeast. Brink was the director of an exhibit titled, "The Spririt of the Abenaki" and the co-producer of a 2000-2001 exhibit that toured the U.S. called, "Shamanism, Magic, and Busy Spider". After earning a Master's degree in Native American Studies from Norwich University, Brink became the cultural awareness director of the Dawnland Center in Montpelier, VT. She has also served as coordinator of People of the Dawn (Abenaki Heritage Tour Group). She performs with and coordinates the Wabanaki Dancers. She also gives presentations throughout the Northeast on Western Abenaki culture. Brink has raised awareness about historical accounts involving the Abenaki people in Vermont. Through the Vermont Folklife Center and a children's book entitled, "Malian's Song", Brink recounts the story of her ancestor, a girl named Malian, and the attacks on an Abenaki community near Montreal led by a British Major in 1759. Jeanne Brink lives in Barre, VT with her husband. She is a mother of three and a grandmother. She has served on the Board of Trustees of the Vermont Historical Society and UVM's Robert Hull Fleming Museum. From 1987-present she has been a Native American presenter and consultant to various schools and organizations throughout New England and New York.

Norwich University

Artist Activist Educator

Beatrice Brown graduated from Brattleboro High School in 1915. After high school, Brown studied law under Judge A. F. Schwenk. She served as register of the Probate Court from 1916 to 1948. In 1922, Brown became the sixth woman admitted to the Vermont Bar Association. She was the first woman in southern Vermont admitted to practice law. After serving as register of the probate court, Brown was elected as Judge of the Marlboro Probate District and held that position until she retired in 1964. Along with being the first woman admitted to the bar in Southern Vermont, she was also the first woman elected to grand juror in Windham County and the first woman in Vermont to be elected justice of the peace.

Lawyer

Marilyn Cochran Brown is the eldest of three sisters who were spectacular alpine skiers in the 1960's and 1970's. She was on the U.S. Ski Team from 1967-1974, the International Ski Federation Team from 1970-1974, and the 1972 U.S. Olympic Team. She was the US Giant Slalom Champion in 1986 and 1974, World Cup Grand Slalom Champion in 1969, the International Ski Federation World Champion Combined Bronze Medalist in 1970, the French National Champion in 1971 (the first year they allowed international entries), and the US Slalom Champion in 1972. As the Combined Bronze Medalist in 1970, she was the first US woman to finish on the podium since the race began in 1954. In 1978 she was inducted into the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 1979, and is now a member of the UVM Hall of Fame. She has coached skiing at the University of New Hampshire, the Queechee Ski Club, and Hanover, New Hampshire High School. She currently resides in Norwich, Vermont, with her husband, Chris Brown, with whom she has two sons, Roger and Douglas. Roger won the NCAA Slalom title competing for Dartmouth College in 2003 and was named to the United States Ski Team in 2005. Cochran serves as general manager of the Cochran Ski Area in Richmond, Vermont.

University of Vermont (1979)

Professional Skier Ski Coach

Mary Taylor Bryan was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, in 1907. Moving to Connecticut with her parents at an early age, she also lived with them in California before settling permanently in the East. Admittedly indifferent to her studies at the various schools she attended, Mary was always the top in her class in art, particularly leaning toward sculpture. She studied in workshop situations with some outstanding sculptors of the time including Laura Fraser and Carl Illiver, and then at the New School of American Sculpture. In 1938, she moved with her husband, painter Alden Bryan, and their young son, to Gloucester, MA, where they returned for many summers. There she began her career as a painter. She and Alden operated the Bryan Gallery in Rocky Neck, MA, exhibiting their work for over 30 years. While there, she studied painting with the legendary American artist Emile Gruppe, and also attended classes with Eliot O'Hara at his school for watercolor in Goose Rocks Beach, Maine. The Bryans settled permanently on a farm in Jeffersonville, VT, in 1939, again drawn to an area which had been a mecca for New England landscape painters for decades. Unfettered by formal, academic training, Mary Bryan expressed herself masterfully in a variety of artistic media: watercolor, acrylics, plastic tempera and paintings in wool. She worked in enamels and at a potter's wheel, at lacquered boxes, decoupage and intricate beaded jewelry, weaving and spinning wool. Her hands were never idle. Early to rise, she would often be at her easel before drinking her morning coffee. During her career, Mary Bryan won two prizes at the American Watercolor Society, where her paintings were included in a select group of the Society's exhibits, touring the country on three separate occasions. She won three awards at the National Association of Women Artists, two prizes at the Silvermine Guild, three first prizes at the North Shore Arts Association and two at the Allied Artists of American, including the Gold Medal of Honor for the Best in Show. In Boston, Mary Bryan was a member of the Guild of Boston Artists and the Copley Society, at both of which she and her husband had two-artist exhibitions. Mary Bryan died in September, 1978, and is buried in Waterville, VT. The Mary Bryan Memorial Gallery was built in her memory at Jeffersonville in 1984 by her husband, to show the finest Vermont and New England painters, and is now in its 23rd year.

Artist

Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker, who became famous writing under her married name, Pearl S. Buck, was born on her family's 16-acre farm in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Her parents were Presbyterian missionaries who lived in China during Buck's childhood. Buck was educated by her mother and a Chinese tutor until the family had to flee to Shanghai during the Boxer Rebellion. There she attended boarding school before going to the Randolph-Macon Women's College, in Lynchburg, VA, where she got her B.A. in 1914. In 1917, she married John Lossing Buck, an agricultural expert stationed in northern China. She later went on to get her M.A. at Cornell University in 1926. Pearl S. Buck was the first American woman to receive both the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes for Literature. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1932 for her novel, "Good Earth". In 1935 she also received the Howell's Medal for this novel. In 1938, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces." MGM adapted "Good Earth" into a film in 1938. Buck was a humanist who captured life in China and focused on East/West culture clashes. She wrote her first novel, "East Wind, West Wind" in 1930, followed by "Good Earth" in 1931. Also of note are, "Sons" (1932), "A House Divided" (1935), and "The Exile" and "Fighting Angel" (1936), which are biographies of her mother and father. Many of her novels were made into films, including: "Good Earth", "Dragon Seed", "China Sky", "Satan Never Sleeps" (based on "The China Story"), and "Pavilion of Women". Buck lived for many years in China. She moved permanently to the U.S. in 1934. She created the first adoption center devoted to multi-racial adoption, called the Welcome House. With her first husband she adopted five children. In 1935 Pearl Buck was divorced and remarried to her editor, Richard Walsh. In all, she was the adopted mother to nine children. With Walsh, Buck created the East and West Association in 1942. This organization was dedicated to cultural exchange between Asia and the West. As the mother of a daughter with disabilities, Buck worked on behalf of the mentally handicapped, and published the influential book, "The Child Who Never Grew." Buck was also active in the women's rights and civil rights movements. She created the Pearl S. Buck Foundation in 1964, which provides aid to American-Asian children fathered by men in the U.S. military. Buck moved to Vermont in 1950, where she settled in Winhall. In 1969 she moved to Danby. In Danby, she put efforts towards improving local tourism, opening new shops, and importing Asian gift items. In 1983, the Pearl Buck U.S. Postal Stamp was issued.

BA, Randolph-Macon Women's College (1914) M.A., Cornell (1926)

Writer Humanitarian

Lucy Mallary Bugbee was a pioneer in Vermont conservation. She worked to preserve bogs, wildflowers, and ferns in Vermont. She grew up in Massachusetts, graduating in 1908 from Mount Holyoke College, where she went to school along with her three sisters. She was a teacher in Massachusetts, and published a book for junior high school students entitled, "Exploratory and General Language". She married Lloyd Bugbee and lived in Connecticut before retiring in Vermont. Bugbee became interested in Vermont ecology and nature. She was the chair of conservation for the Federation of Women's Clubs for a decade. She kept a large garden and wildflower trail. Bugbee frequently gave lectures on Vermont wild flora. Throughout her life, she took over 400 nature photographs which are available at the State Library in Montpelier, the Fairbanks Museum, and at schools throughout the state. Lucy Bugbee is best known for her conservation work. She saved the Stoddard Swamp in Peacham from destruction during the building of Interstate 91. When the New England Wild Flower Society gave the land to the state, the area was renamed, the "Lucy Mallary Bugbee Wild Flower Sanctuary and Natural Area". The New England Wild Flower Society honored Bugbee in 1968 with a conservation award. Bugbee continued to do conservation work, also saving the Victory Bog Basin in Essex County, VT from being destroyed by new dams. This 1500 acre forest and wetlands area has been designated as an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society, and is also home to rare native plant species.

Mount Holyoke College, 1908

Conservationist Photographer Teacher Writer

Mary Rogers Cabot compiled and edited The Annals of Brattleboro, a two-volume history of the town that became a standard reference for local historians. The oldest of four children of Norman Franklin Cabot and Lucy T. Brooks, she remained single and lived all her life at her family's home in Brattleboro though she traveled extensively. Her wealthy and prominent father served as treasurer of the Vermont Savings Bank for twenty-nine years. In 1907, Cabot helped organize the Brattleboro Mutual Aid Association (BMAA), an innovative visiting nurse program sponsored by the Thomas Thompson Trust. Dedicated to employing poor women as domestic helpers and serving needy residents during illness, the Association developed a training program for nurse attendants which set new standards for nurse training in Vermont and nationally. In 1917, the Association collaborated in the establishment of the Thompson School of Nursing, whose graduates were eventually qualified as licensed practical nurses. Cabot and other leaders of the BMAA developed a number of health-related social welfare programs for Brattleboro, including tuberculosis and maternity care, child health and dental clinics, and school nursing. Cabot also participated in other voluntary associations, including the Daughters of the American Revolution and Colonial Dames. Prior to the U.S. entry into World War I, she became a Director of the Vermont Peace Society and in 1919 was listed as a member of the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association. She was most renowned, however, for her local history work. Published in 1921, "The Annals of Brattleboro" was highly regarded as a local history reference by prominent members of the business community, who consulted Cabot as a resident expert on the town's past.

Historical writer Social welfare activist Director, Vermont Peace Society

Sister Elizabeth Candon grew up in Pittsford, Vermont, on her family's dairy farm. She attended both elementary school and high school in Pittsford before attending Trinity College in 1939. Candon met nuns for the first time at Trinity and decided to join the Sisters of Mercy Order. She completed her Bachelors of Arts degree at Trinity and taught fourth grade at Cathedral Grammar School before being offered the opportunity to earn her Masters and Ph.D. at Fordham University. While there, she focused on Medieval, Romantic, and Victorian literature. Candon returned to Trinity College in 1954 as Director of Admissions and taught several English courses. She became President of the College in 1966 and remained in that office until 1976. When she stepped down from the Presidency, she was asked by Governor Richard Snelling to be the Secretary of Human Services. She accepted and then became the first woman and nun to run a state agency. After retiring from the Agency of Human Services, Candon served as a trustee of Goddard, Trinity, and Middlebury College, as well as the Richard A. Snelling Center for Government. She became the Director of the Vermont Ethics Network and was on committees with the following organizations: the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce, the Howard Mental Health Agency, and the United Community Service of Chittenden County. The Sister Elizabeth Candon Distinguished Service Award was established in her honor in 1984 by the Vermont Women in Higher Education organization. The honor is presented to a woman who has shown evidence of promoting and working toward the advancement of women in higher education and involvement at the national, regional, state, and local levels in related activities.

BA, Trinity College (Burlington, VT) Master's and Ph.D., Fordham College

Fourth grade teacher at Cathedral Grammar School Director of Admissions at Trinity College President of Trinity College Secretary of Health and Human Services for the State of Vermont

Lilian Matarose Baker Carlisle was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on January 1, 1912. After taking a secretarial course at the Pierce College of Business Administration, she married Grafton Carlisle. In 1946 she and her husband moved to Burlington with their two young daughters, Penelope and Diana. Four years later, she began working as an assistant to Electra Havermeyer Webb, founder of the Shelburne Museum. Originally hired for her shorthand and typing skills, at Webb's suggestion she researched and designed a cataloging system for the museum's collection. In the process, she became an expert in the material culture and folk art at the museum. Carlisle spent the next eleven years as Director of Research and Collections and received national recognition for her work in cataloging this unique collection. While working at the Shelburne Museum, she published a book, "Vermont Clocks, Watchmakers, Silversmiths and Jewelers, 1778-1878", which remains the definitive resource on this material. She also authored many articles and catalogues about the Shelburne Museum, including: "The Story of the Shelburne Museum, co-authored with Ralph Nading Hill," "The Carriages at Shelburne Museum," "Pieced Work and Applique Quilts at Shelburne Museum," and "Hatboxes and Bandboxes at Shelburne Museum." Her articles on material culture appeared in Antiques Journal, Yankee, Antiques, Spinning Wheel, Art & Antiques, Hobbies, and Antique Trader magazines. Carlisle began her interest in Burlington's historic buildings in 1965 when she guided her first walking history tour of the city. Subsequently, she co-founded the Chittenden County Historical Society and edited the society's eleven-volume "Look Around" series and the three-volume "Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods." Carlisle represented Burlington in the Vermont House of Representatives in 1969-1970 and became known for her interest in environmental legislation, health care, abortion rights and published a number of important studies on mental retardation, day care and a Burlington Area Community Health Study. Returning to college, she received her B.A. from UVM in 1981, followed by an M.A. in 1986 and an honorary Ph.D. in 2005. She served on several advisory boards and participated in the "We Vermonters: Perspectives on the Past" series and the "Research in Progress" seminar series sponsored by the Center for Research on Vermont. She established an Heirloom Appraisal Day at the Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont, where she served on the Board of Advisors. On May 5, 2005, she was awarded the Center for Research on Vermont's Lifetime Achievement Award. Carlisle died on July 28, 2006 at 94 years of age.

Dickinson College (one year) Pierce College of Business Administration University of Vermont, B.A. (1981), M.A. (1986), and Honorary Ph.D. (2005)

Carlisle, Lilian Baker (1912-2006)

Lilian Baker Carlisle, Vermont Historian and Burlington Treasure

Born in Townshend, Vermont, Betsey Carroll married at age 18 and, like many other young women in the early nineteenth century, experienced a religious conversion. Precipitated by a bout of spotted fever, her devotion to religion dominated her life and thinking. After she and her husband Timothy moved to the frontier town of Bakersfield in 1812, she held religious meetings and gatherings at her home and at one point became a Free Will Baptist. She was entranced by revivalists who came through Bakersfield during the Second Great Awakening. Adventist Thomas Davidson, who preached that believers would possess strange powers and that Christ would return to earth as a woman, excited the community, including one man who hung himself. These happenings greatly affected Carroll. She documented her religious enthusiasm in a journal, included in Massachusetts Historical Genealogic publications. Carroll continued to be active in her local church for the rest of her life and wrote a short pamphlet, "Piety in Humble Life," held in the collections of the Vermont Historical Society.

Author

May Belle Chellis was the first woman to graduate from Middlebury College in 1886. She was Valedictorian of her seven member class, the other six members being men. There is now a Chellis House at Middlebury College that was named in her honor. Chellis was the assistant to the Principal and also taught at Black River Academy in Ludlow, Vermont. One of her students was Calvin Coolidge. She married Joseph Doremus in her birth town of Meriden, New Hampshire and they lived in Nebraska with their five children. Her legacy as a teacher and advisor continued in 1919 when she exchanged letters with her former student, Calvin Coolidge, who was then Governor of Massachusetts. The letters discussed the Boston Police Strike which thrust Coolidge into the national spotlight.

Middlebury College (1886)

Teacher Administrator

Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn was well-known as a poet, educator, and social reformer. She graduated from Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester, Vermont in 1895. During her childhood in southern Vermont, Cleghorn came to know Dorothy Canfield Fisher, who would also become a noted writer and educator. The two women maintained a close relationship throughout their lifetimes and collaborated on a book of essays, "Fellow Captains" (1916), and "Nothing Ever Happens and How It Does" (1940). Sarah N. Cleghorn also wrote a dramatization of Fisher's novel for children, "Understood Betsy" (1934). Cleghorn attended Radcliffe College for several terms, taking courses in literature and philosophy. She then contributed short stories and poems to various popular magazines, which included Harper's and Atlantic Monthly. In 1915 she began her teaching career, working in schools that were affiliated with the workers' education movement. She actively supported the following causes: full suffrage for women, equal rights for African-Americans, prison reform, packing house reform, and abolishment of child labor. In addition to teaching and participating in these movements, she was also the author of numerous texts, including: the novels "A Turnpike Lady" (1907), and "The Spinster" (1916); a book of poems, "Portraits and Protests" (1917); an autobiography with an introduction by Robert Frost, "Threescore" (1936); books of essays, "Poems of Peace and Freedom" (1945) and "The Seamless Robe" (1945). Cleghorn died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 4, 1959.

Radcliffe College

Brookwood School in Katonah, N.Y. (1920) Manumit Farm in Pawling, N.Y.(1922-1929) Associate professor of English at Vassar College (1930) Author, Poet

Deborah Pickman Clifford was a Vermont historian and author. She who wrote three full-length biographies and co-authored a history of Vermont during the 1927 flood. She served as the first woman president of the Vermont Historical Society from 1981-1984 and was a member of the Vermont Women's History Project Steering Committee from its inception in 2004. Born in Boston, Clifford attended the Covent of the Sacred Heart in Torresdale, Pennsylvania. She received an Honors Degree in history from Radcliffe College in 1957 and married Nicholas Clifford the same year. They moved to Cornwall, Vermont, in 1966 with their four daughters after her husband accepted a position as a history professor at Middlebury College. Clifford continued her education at the University of Vermont, where she received a M.A. in History in 1974. Clifford wrote several significant articles about women in Vermont history and used her historical knowledge and research skills to become a skilled biographer of nineteenth-century women. Her books include: "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: a Biography of Julia Ward Howe," (1979) author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic;" "Crusader for Freedom: A Life of Lydia Maria Child," (1992) the writer and abolitionist; and "The Passion of Abby Hemenway: Memory, Spirit, and the Making of History" (2001). Hemenway is well-known in Vermont as the compiler of the five-volume "Vermont Historical Gazeteer." Together with her husband, Clifford wrote "The Troubled Roar of the Waters: Vermont in Flood and Reconstruction, 1927-1931," (2007) for which they won the Vermont Historical Society's Hathaway Award in 2008. Her "Remarkable Vermont Women" will be published posthumously in 2009. In addition to her writing and research, Clifford was also involved in Vermont community organizations and historical societies. She served as the first female president of both the Vermont Historical Society in Barre and the Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury (1981-1984). She was an editor for "Historic Roots," a magazine for adult new readers, from 1995 to 2000, and occasionally taught courses at Middlebury College, the University of Vermont, and Vermont College. Most recently she was a member of the Vermont Women's History Project and served on the Vermont Lincoln Bicentennial Committee. In 1995, she received the Governor's Award in Vermont History and has been recognized by the Vermont Historical Society twice for her articles. In September 2008, she was inducted posthumously into the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Honors in History, Radcliffe College (1957) M.A. in History, University of Vermont (1974)

Historian Author Editor Teacher

Barbara Cochran was one of three sisters who were spectacular alpine skiers in the 1960's and 1970's. She was on the United States Ski Team from 1968-1974, the International Ski Federation Team from 1970-1974, and the 1972 U.S. Olympic Team. She won a Gold Medal at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. Her gold medal was the first won by an American skier at the Olympics in twenty years. She also won a silver medal in the slalom at the 1970 International Ski Federation World Championships, and was the U.S. National Champion in the Giant Slalom and Slalom. In 1976 she was inducted into the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. A 1978 graduate of the University of Vermont, she is now a member of the UVM Hall of Fame. She is a member of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. In 1993, she co-authored a book with her sister, Linda, entitled "Teach Your Child to Ski." Her business, Golden Opportunities in Sports, teaches athletes to increase their confidence and skills so that they can succeed. She has two children, Caitlin and Ryan, and lives in Starksboro, Vermont.

University of Vermont (1978)

Professional Skier Author Physical education, health and home economics teacher Ski coach and instructor at Cochran's Ski Area

Born in New York City in 1914, Malvine Cole attended Cornell University where she received her B.A. in English in 1934. Her talents and ambitions brought her into the fields of writing, public relations, and politics. She wrote for various national newspapers, including the Washington Post and the New York Times. Her articles have been published in many magazines such as Vermont Life, New York Times Sunday Magazine, and Atlantic Monthly. Following her divorce in 1952, Cole pursued a career in public relations, and worked for a variety of organizations, including: Norwich University, the Vermont Maple Industry Council, and Stratton Mountain Ski Development where she was often call the "mother" of the resort. Her interest in politics was sparked in 1941 when she began a war nursery in Washington, D.C., but her Vermont political career began in 1955 when she was elected State Representative from Stratton. She served in various elected offices on the town level. In 1968 she was a delegate to the New Party (founded by Dick Gregory) convention.

B.A. in English from Cornell University (1934)

Journalist Public Relations Politician

Ella Colt grew up in Brookfield on a family farm near the Floating Bridge on Sunset Lake (previously known as Colt's Pond). She married John Nathan Benham in 1898, and they began farming in Brookfield. Ella Colt was a self taught photographer and business owner. She operated a photo studio near Brookfield's famous Floating Bridge in the 1890's. Her photo collection includes family portraits, landscapes and buildings. Her work, in the form of more than one hundred glass plate negatives, was found in the attic of her brother's (Wallace Colt's)house in Brookfield in the 1960's. Forty years later the Brookfield Historical Society recognized the significance of her photography, began preserving the collection and making prints from some of the glass plates.

Farmer Photographer Business Owner

Lucy Ainsworth, known for most of her life as "Sleeping Lucy," was a renown medical clairvoyant, who diagnosed illness and prescribed remedies while in a hypnotic trance. One of nine children, she was raised in Calais, Vermont, helping to support her family by braiding straw and making bonnets. While apprenticed to a tailor to learn fine sewing, she became ill and nearly bedridden for two years. After local physicians exhausted their efforts to effect a cure, the Ainsworths asked her brother Luther, who had learned Mesmerism, for help. Similar to hypnosis, Mesmerism supposedly allowed a person to project a life-force or energy field to another to induce a trance-like state. Under Luther's influence, Lucy fell into a hypnotic trance in which she prescribed her own cure. When her health improved, she vowed to dedicate her life to studying disease and finding cures. In 1846 Lucy married Charles R. Cooke of Morristown, Vermont, in Moriah, New York. Both Lucy's husband and her brother Luther Ainsworth supposedly possessed extra-sensory perception and helped develop and manage her career as a professional clairvoyant. Charles Cooke induced Lucy's trances while the couple developed her business in Reading, Vermont, from 1848 to 1855, when Charles Cooke died. They had one child, Julia Ann Cooke, in 1851. After her husband's death, Lucy Cooke moved to Montpelier, where she practiced her art until 1876 with the help of her assistant, Everett William Raddin, who may have replaced her husband as mesmerist. According to local clients, Sleeping Lucy was able to cure illness and set broken bones and fractures by "laying on of hands?; broken arms, legs, collar-bones, and dislocated shoulders cost ten dollars each. Others consulted her psychic powers to find lost objects, for which she charged a dollar. She studied pharmacology, developed cures, and operated a brisk mail order business, both for consultations and herbal remedies. Her products included: Rhubarb Lozenges, White Pond Lily Syrup, Pitch of Sassafras, Diaphoretic Drops, Cedar Ointment, Restorative Powders, Dandelion Compound, and Woman's Friend. Most of her clients lived in New England, but some consulted her from as far away as Iowa and Tennessee. During the height of Cooke's career, male physicians and surgeons questioned her healing powers and sought to undermine her legitimacy by ridiculing her practice. In response, she claimed to be the "Priestess of Humanity" and to have successfully set over thirteen hundred bones. She printed testimonials from patients and challenged any surgeon to match her record. From 1877 until her death in 1895, Lucy Cooke practiced in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Raddin who became her husband. During these years her career declined, she went into debt, and for a time she became estranged from her only daughter. Reports that Raddin misappropriated funds and treated her badly suggest that he contributed to her unhappiness. She contracted a series of illnesses and finally died at her Cambridge residence, apparently from colon cancer.

Medical Clairvoyant

Grace Anna Goodhue was born in Burlington, Vermont on January 3, 1879. She attended school in Burlington and graduated high school in 1897, before attending the University of Vermont. After college, she taught at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts. She was married on October 4, 1905 to Calvin Coolidge, future President of the United States, whom she had met upon her move to Northampton. She stopped teaching after marriage and gave birth to her first son, John, on September 7, 1906. A second son, Calvin Jr., followed on April 13, 1908. Calvin Coolidge had been involved with politics for as long as Grace knew him, and he eventually became the Governor of Massachusetts in 1919. This led to a Vice Presidential nomination with Republican running mate William Harding. When Harding won the election, the Coolidge family moved to Washington, D.C., where Grace presided over "The Ladies of the Senate" and particpated in the social and political world of Washington D.C. This was a dramatic change for her because, previously, she had tried to stay out of the political spotlight. After the death of President Harding, Calvin Coolidge became President on August 3, 1923 and Grace Coolidge officially became the First Lady. Grace Coolidge was a social First Lady who often entertained at the White House. She asked for a joint resolution by Congress to authorize acceptance of gifts of furniture to the White House and was committed to restoring the antiques of the building. She also oversaw several renovations of the White House, which included adding a sky parlor for more sunshine and updating the family quarters. As First Lady, she raised two million dollars for the Clarke School for the Deaf, her primary social cause, and developed a friendship with Helen Keller. A blow was dealt to the Coolidge family when Calvin Jr. died on July 7, 1924 at the age of sixteen from blood poisoning caused by a blister. Calvin Coolidge was elected in 1924, but declined to run in 1928. Grace Coolidge made her only public radio address, "Goodbye," on the afternoon of their departure from the White House. The Coolidge's retired to their home "The Beeches" in Northampton, Massachusetts, so that Grace Coolidge could be close to the Clarke School. Calvin Coolidge died on January 5, 1933 and his death left Grace Coolidge devastated. After her husband's death, she began to write articles for magazines and to speak out on causes that were important to her. She travelled to Europe and was a devoted fan of the Boston Red Sox. Grace Coolidge died on July 8, 1957.

University of Vermont (1902)

Teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts First Lady of the United States

Coolidge, Calvin (1872-1933)

In 1917, Clara Cooper formed the first Vermont Girl Scout troop in Wilder. Cooper had moved to Wilder as a school teacher, and she also ran a large Sunday School class for girls. Hoping to provide the girls with some kind of activity during the week, she organized a group of Campfire girls, which were then becoming active in Vermont. The following year, the Campfire girls became Girl Scouts, largely because school officials refused to allow the girls to wear the short Campfire skirts in school on meeting days. Girl Scout uniforms did not pose this problem, so the troop decided to switch. In 1927, a member of the troop, Eleanor Tuttle, earned the Golden Eaglet award, the first Vermont girl to do so; in 1929 another member of the troop became an Eaglet Scout. Cooper's troop also developed a drum and bugle corps, which played in various parades. In 1940, Cooper moved to Randolph where she was also active with the local Girl Scouts.

Teacher

Flora Coutts was the oldest daughter, (and one of eight children) of Flora Mable Longeway and Robert M. Coutts. Her father emigrated from Scotland and worked as a granite cutter in Hardwick. He died early from "stone cutters' disease", leaving his wife to support all eight children by taking in washing. Born in West Charleston, Vermont, Flora graduated from Hardwick Academy and went on to receive a teaching certificate from Johnson Normal School in 1917. (All of her brothers and sisters also went on to higher education.) She began her career teaching in Vermont and Cleveland, Ohio, but moved to Korea from 1922 to 1925 to teach at the Pyengyang Foreign School, sponsored by the Presbyterian Church of the USA. Coutts returned to Vermont in 1925 where she worked for the Vermont Extension Service as a Club Agent from 1925-1936. She also ran her own business from 1936-37. Coutts was elected to the Vermont Senate from Orleans County for two terms (1937-8, 1939-40). After that, Coutts was the Executive Secretary of the Orleans County Development Association and the Vermont Association for the Crippled. During WWII, Coutts worked for the American Red Cross in India and China (1943-45). This time, when she returned from being abroad, she became the first Executive Secretary of the Northeastern Vermont Development Association. She also served six terms in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1961-72. Coutts held office in many groups including: President of the Vermont Business and Professional Women's Club; Assistant Director of the 350th Champlain Valley Festival; Vice Chair of the Vermont Republican Party Executive Committee, and a delegate to the 1940 Republican Convention in Philadelphia. Coutts maintained a substantial collection of photographs, postcards, and letters from both her trips abroad and her life in Vermont. She also collected many pieces of Vermont memorabilia related to the special occasions and celebrations she participated in as a legislator and civic leader. This collection, which also includes diaries, letters and notebooks, is housed at the Vermont Historical Society.

Johnson Normal School (1917)

Teacher American Red Cross Vermont State Representative and Senator Executive Secretary of the Northeastern Vermont Development Association

Clarissa Danforth was one of the first women evangelists in Vermont. She was a Freewill Baptist known for having an engaging speaking style and a powerful voice. Danforth was born in Weathersfield, Vermont, and was converted around the year 1809 by Freewill Baptist John Colby of Sutton. Soon after the war of 1812, she began preaching. She left Vermont to preach in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, where she was successful at winning over many new converts. She was referred to as "the preaching sensation of the decade" (1810-1820). Danforth returned to Weathersfield in 1821, where she did some preaching, and was soon married to Danford Richmond, a Baptist minister from Connecticut. After her marriage, the couple moved to New York and she only preached occasionally after that.

Evangelist preacher

Lucy J. C. Daniels was the fifth child of Francis and Lucy Barrett Daniels of Grafton. Her four older brothers married, eventually moved west, and became successful businessmen or lawyers, returning to Grafton periodically. Neither Lucy nor her younger sister Susan married. As adults both invested their inheritance wisely and remained prominent in Grafton though they diverged in their interests and political views. After elementary school, Lucy attended Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, N. H., and Gannett Institute for Young Ladies in Boston, where she later resided during the winter months. A lifelong learner, Daniels became a member of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Society in 1885, graduated in 1896 from one of the first law school programs for women at New York University, and was awarded a law degree from Portia Law School for Women (now New England Law) at the age of 68 in 1926. An ardent suffragist, Daniels noted that she gleaned her ideas from her mother. She was exposed to suffrage activism in Boston and became involved with the National American Woman Suffrage Organization (NAWSA) and the National Woman’s Party (NWP) She belonged to the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association (VESA) and corresponded periodically with its chief lobbyist and speaker Annette W. Parmelee during the 1910s. In 1911, Daniels refused to pay her property taxes in protest against Grafton’s representative to the legislature who had voted against a bill allowing women to vote in town meetings. As a result, the selectmen auctioned off some of her bank shares to recoup the tax, but a nephew purchased the lot, which remained in the family. In a public pronouncement, she painted a large sign on one of her buildings in Grafton: “A Square Deal: Votes for Vermont Women.” Daniels placed ads in the Bellows Falls Times and reiterated the claim that “taxation of women without votes for women is tyranny.” Daniels recognized the plight of disenfranchised wage-earning and African-American women, who faced class or racial as well as gender bias. Arguing that many women were now working even if they were married, she held that the vote would allow them to effect legislation regulating their working conditions and wages. She insisted that she would not vote in school meetings, even though she qualified as a local taxpayer, until all women had that right for, “I am not an aristocrat,” she proclaimed. Daniels’s association with national organizations led her to advocate for the federal amendment and to participation in the 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. designed to draw attention to Congressional action. She offered parade organizer Alice Paul $50 to recruit 100 African-American women for the event. Paul was willing to include black women but declined the offer in deference to southern sentiments. At least 50 black women marched anyway. Prompted to bring similar tactics to Vermont, Daniels organized a grand suffrage procession and demonstration in Grafton the following year. During a statewide campaign on May 2, 1914, she incorporated flags and other paraphernalia she had secured from the 1913 parade to create a colorful display. In honor of Daniels’s aunt, who had cast her first vote on a temperance issue in Illinois, attendees planted a tree, after which Daniels and others advocated for woman suffrage in outdoor speeches. Daniels became more radical in her suffrage activism after Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organized the National Woman’s Party and staged nonviolent protests against President Wilson in 1917. After the country had entered World War I, when many Americans considered these protests unpatriotic, Daniels became one of the “Silent Sentinels.” They stood quietly every day in front of the White House to demand action on woman suffrage with such banners as, “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” and labeling him “Kaiser Wilson” during the war. Bystanders tried to pull down their banners, creating a riot, prompting police to arrest the women for obstructing traffic. Daniels was arrested three times, jailed, and treated roughly by guards on one occasion despite the nonviolent stance of the protesters. Many of her compatriots went on hunger strike and were subsequently force fed, whereby they gained considerable attention from the press. In her final radical act, Daniels joined other members of the NWP in Boston to disrupt President Wilson’s return from the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Along with 16 other women, she spent several days in Charles Street Jail. At home in Grafton during summer, Daniels discovered that her notoriety had spurred local vandals to break into her home and paint “Jailbird Retreat” on her house. After suffrage was achieved in 1920, Daniels spent less and less time in Grafton. She was a devoted vegetarian, a peace advocate, and a supporter of other social justice issues. She gave generously to charitable causes and local institutions in Grafton; upon her death in 1949, she left a large legacy to the Grafton Public Library.

New York University, 1896 Portia Law School for Women, 1926

Suffragist

Philomene Daniels, or "Captain Phil", was the first woman in the U.S. to be licensed as Pilot and Master for steamboat navigation. With her husband, Captain Louis Daniels, Jr., she operated the "Daniels Boat Line" on Lake Champlain and on the Otter Creek. Captain Louis Daniels operated the daily ferry, "The Water Lily", which ran between Vergennes, VT and Westport, NY. Philomene Daniels had about ten years experience at the helm of this craft prior to becoming the first licensed female steamboat captain. Daniels then operated her own boat, "The Little Nellie". While her husband ran the daily ferry, Philomene would often use her ferry to run "excursion trips". On these trips she transported wealthy passengers from Vergennes and Westport to rail connections to New York City to attend the opera and stay up-to-date with the latest fashions. The Daniels Boat Line stopped at all the summer resorts and private landings in the area. On one notable trip in September 1887, Champ, Lake Champlain's legendary lake monster, was reportedly sighted. When Captain Louis Daniels died in 1903, Philomene Daniels continued to run the business until her son, Mitchell, and his wife, Helen, took over. Helen Daniels became the third female licensed steamboat captain in the U.S. While raising eight children, she took over Philomene's duties for 13 years before the ferry finally became outdated in 1916.

Steamboat Captain

Rebecca Peabody Davis was noted for her medical and surgical skills at a time when little professional medical training for female doctors existed. One of eight children of Col. Stephen Peabody and Hannah Chandler, she was born in Amherst, New Hampshire, and migrated to Johnson, Vermont, with family members after the Revolutionary War. Her father was a physician who had fought under General Stark at the Battle of Bennington, held a number of town offices in Amherst, and served in the New Hampshire Legislature. Along with three of her brothers, Rebecca studied medicine, began setting fractured bones, and practicing surgery with a brother in Johnson. In 1794, selectmen in Montpelier solicited her services to treat a poor, lame man who had fallen from a tree and needed medical attention, for which she charged the town seventeen pounds, five shillings. When town officials attempted to pay her only about half the amount, she complained, insisting that she had left a lucrative practice to attend their charge. They eventually paid her fifteen pounds. In the meantime, Rebecca met and married Parley Davis from Oxford, Massachusetts, a nephew of Col. Jacob Davis and the earliest settler and surveyor of Montpelier. While his uncle is credited with founding Montpelier, Parley and Rebecca settled on the hill above the village in the center of town that became East Montpelier in 1848. Considered the founder of East Montpelier, Parley built a large frame home that was used for town meetings until the 1820s. A public-spirited man, he promoted education and established the town's first circulating library in their home. Rebecca continued to practice medicine and surgery for both local and regional patients and was also known for her skill working with flax and wool. She raised seven daughters, who attended local district schools and Montpelier Academy.Parley died in 1848, just after the division of the town; Rebecca survived him by six years. A framed, oil portrait, painted in 1845 by an unknown artist is housed at the Vermont Historical Society

Physician

Annette Chase Dimock became widely known as Vermont's "Aunt Serena" for her entertaining weekly columns in the Burlington Free Press, which she wrote for nearly twenty-five years. Born in Chaseville, New York, she graduated from high school in Cooperstown, New York, in 1891, attended the New England Conservatory of Music, and graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1903. That year she began a career as a teacher of home economics at Michigan State Normal School in Ypsilanti, Michigan. After attending Teachers' College in New York City in 1910, she took a series of teaching jobs in the field, first at Pratt Institute and then Simmons College in Boston. At thirty-nine while teaching at Massachusetts Agriculture College in Amherst, Annette Chase met her future husband Julian Dimock, a travel and wildlife photographer and writer, originally from Elizabeth, New Jersey. Having recently bought a hillside farm with extensive orchards in Topsham, Vermont, he was attending the college to learn apple horticulture. After their marriage on July 27, 1912, the couple began developing the Dimock Orchard while continuing to write and publish articles about country life. Dedicated horticulturists and astute marketers, the Dimocks sold high quality apples and developed a specialty in certified seed potatoes. At the same time, Annette Dimock wrote magazine articles about home economics in a rural setting and continued to teach at Vermont Agricultural College Extension Service from 1914 to 1918 and Cornell Agricultural College the following year. During World War I when farm labor was scarce, the Dimocks began employing and housing young women from the Woman's Land Army during summer and fall harvest. They maintained a tradition of training and employing women farm workers extensively until the 1930s. In 1922, Annette Dimock began her career as a columnist after winning a letter-writing contest in which she portrayed herself as "Aunt Serena" writing to her niece "Peggy" about becoming a farmer's wife. She maintained this persona for the next twenty-five years through her columns entitled "Letters to Peggy" in the Burlington Free Press. In the early years, Dimock focused on housekeeping topics and rural life, but her interests ranged widely. She became known for her insightful, witty, and outspoken commentary on any topic, from Vermont country fairs to great literature and politics. Early in her career as a columnist, Dimock was elected as Topsham's Republican representative to the Vermont Legislature for the 1925-26 session, shortly after women had gained full voting rights in 1920. She apparently preferred to comment on public affairs, a role she perfected as Vermont's "Aunt Serena" until the mid-1940s. Her husband Julian died in 1945, and she remained a widow until her death thirteen years later at age eighty-five.

New England Conservatory of Music Pratt Institute

Teacher Writer Horticulturist

The daughter of a professor of Russian at Harvard University, she was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 23, 1902. She received her B.A. from Radcliffe in 1920 and her M.S. from MIT in 1922. She married Carroll W. Dodge, who was a Botanist and Emeritus Professor at UVM, in 1925. They had two daughters, Anne and Mary. For the majority of her life, Dodge taught high school and college science courses. She also ran a radio program for a year in the St. Louis City Hospital. Other accomplishments include her work as an International Institute Board Member from 1956 to 1959, along with her membership in the National Writers' Club and the Society of Technical Writers. Some of her works include: "Plants that Changed the World", "Hands that Help", "Potatoes and People", "Tales of Vermont Ways and People", "Story of Inscription Rock", and "Road West: Saga of the 35th Parallel", among other short stories. Dodge spoke Spanish and German and read Portuguese and French. She traveled a great deal around Latin America and her collection of Guatemalan Indian weaving has been the subject of exhibits in several museums.

B.A., Radcliffe College (1920) M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1922)

High School science teacher College Professor of Science Writer

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Daisy Dopp ran the 223-acre "Dopp Farm" in Glover, which her great-grandfather, John Sherburne, purchased in 1846. John L. and Daisy Dopp were dairy farmers. Their farm was on the main road for cattle herders traveling from Montreal to Boston. Although not an inn, the Dopp Farm was often open to the community for entertainment and in times of emergency. Daisy Dopp is known also as a writer and historian. She wrote many articles for the Newport Daily Express, and recorded the daily events of her family's and neighbor's lives. Much of her writing was done in the early 1950's. Her work as been collected in a book, "Daisy Dopp's Vermont" (1983). In 1970, the Dopps sold the Dopp Farm. Since this time, the Dopp Farm has been the site of the famous Bread and Puppet Theater. A political circus started in New York City in the early 1960's by Peter Schumann, Bread and Puppet is an outdoor theater/circus featuring large puppets. The Dopp Barn was made into a museum, and the art created by Schumann from 1975-1978 is known as the "Dopp Farm Period".

Dairy Farmer Writer Historian

Daisy Dopp's Vermont

Julia Caroline Ripley Dorr was a famous Vermont author and poet, and one of the first female literary figures in Vermont. She published many novels, poems, and books on travel and advice. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Dorr lived with her widower father in New York City for a brief time before moving to Middlebury, Vermont, where her father was remarried. She had some schooling at the Middlebury Female Seminary and the Troy Conference Academy. Julia Dorr was happily married to Seneca M. Dorr, a lawyer and legislator, in 1847. Together they had five children. They settled in Rutland, and lived in a home called "The Maples" on the bank of the Otter Creek. Dorr was first published after becoming a wife and mother. Her family provided support for her writing ambitions. Her husband helped to publish her first novel, "Farmingdale", in 1854, under the pseudonym, Caroline Thomas. She had two more novels, "Lanmere" (1856) and "Sybil Huntington" (1869), published under this name. From 1873 on, she produced publications under her own name including, "Expiation" (1873), "Bride and Bridegroom" (1873), "In King's Houses" (1898), ten volumes of verse, and three travel books, among others. Her novels often "portrayed young women lifting themselves from poverty through education and persistence". Her work appeared in such publications as, "Harper's", "Scribner's", and "The Atlantic". Dorr was honored as the state's "unofficial poet laureate" and asked to write the Centennial Poem in 1877. The 337-line "Centennial Poem" likened Vermont to, "Woman form, majestic, strong, and fair". Julia Dorr was an active member of the Rutland community. She was a founder of the Rutland Free Library. She was President of the Rutland Fortnightly Club for thirty years. Her children and nephew were regarded as artistically talented as well. Two of her sons, Henry Ripley and Russell R., paid her tribute at Rutland's Centennial celebration. Julia Dorr's father built (and rebuilt after a fire) the Rutland Opera House. Julia Dorr composed an ode for the reopening of the Opera House. Julia Dorr gained the respect and friendship of many of the era's famous male literary figures including: Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Whittier, and Emerson. In 1910, Dorr received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Middlebury College. The College stated, "...you have written the peace and beauty of our northern valleys...you have sung your quiet way into the hearts of Vermont men and women."

Middlebury Female Seminary Troy Conference Academy

Writer Poet

Descended from English Quaker immigrants established in Rhode Island, Rachael Robinson Elmer was the daughter of skilled artist and writer, Rowland Evans Robinson and accomplished artist, Anna Stevens Robinson. She was raised on the family farm, Rokeby, in Ferrisburgh, Vermont within sight of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. Contrary to the usual upbringing of a young girl at the time, Elmer, although quite knowledgeable and capable when it came to "women's work," was not bound by household duties and the usual laborious tasks expected of females on a working farm in the 1900s. Throughout her childhood, her parents recognized and encouraged their oldest child to develop her artistic abilities by spending hours exploring and sketching the flora, fauna, animals and birds on the many acres surrounding the family farm. As a Quaker, hard work, family and community were at the core of Elmer's life. The Robinson family, along with the Quaker community in general, helped many black fugitives along the underground railroad en route to Canada and refused to use foodstuffs and other merchandise grown and/or produced with slave labor. At the age of twelve, Elmer was recognized as a child prodigy for her artistic ability. While attending the Chautauqua Art League, she was invited by the director to study drawing in New York City. For three years, she spent a month in New York. When she was sixteen, she left her family home to study at Goddard Seminary boarding school in Barre, Vermont. She graduated at eighteen, and began teaching art students at home and in Burlington. For three winters, she studied at the Art Students' League in New York under such notable teachers as Childe Hassam, Robert Henri and William Merritt Chase. Elmer's father, Rowland Robinson, was an author of several books portraying 19th century country life. He illustrated his books until he became blind. At this time, Rachael began to illustrate for her father. Her illustrations appear in "Hunting Without a Gun", which was published after her father's death. Throughout her career as an artist, Elmer lived in New York City where she necessarily adhered to society's requirements and standards for young ladies living and working away from home and family - she located acceptable boarding establishments and wrote almost daily to her mother with assurances of safe room and board and financial accountability. Elmer continued her classes at the Art Students League, began working for a firm called Decorative Designers and eventually became associated with Harper & Brothers, the American Book Company and P. F. Volland & Co. Elmer designed book covers, as well as illustrations for magazines and books and also undertook commissioned portraitures. She "signed" her covers and illustrations with two "R's" placed back to back. Elmer established a thriving career through her determination and abilities. Even after meeting and marrying Robert F. Elmer, a New York Businessman and widower with two grown children, in October 17, 1911, she successfully combined married life with her artistic endeavors. Rachael Robinson Elmer later illustrated for "John Bunyan's Dream Story", "Dutch Fairy Tales", historical readers put out by the American Book Company, and a series of poems by Caroline Hofman called the, "Wee Winkles" series. She also designed postcards of New York City tourist attractions, and mastered the craft of linoleum block printing. These cards were issued in 1916, and received wide publicity. Elmer became very involved with the war effort during the First World War. Both she and her husband opened their home to entertain servicemen. She visited the sick and wounded in area hospitals and added some much-needed cheerfulness by drawing life size posters on the servicemen's canteen walls. Elmer's life was cut short when she contracted influenza while volunteering at the Red Cross during the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic that killed hundreds of thousands around the world. Today, Rokeby is a museum and National Historic Landmark honoring the Robinsons, "a remarkable family of Quakers, farmers, abolitionists, authors, and artists."

Goddard Seminary Art Students League, NYC

Artist Writer

Elmer, Rachel Robinson (1878-1919)

Shirley Farr was born to Vermont natives and spent her early years mostly in Illinois and Wisconsin. She was raised by her grandparents for several years in Ripon, WI after her mother's death. Farr earned a Ph.B. from the University of Chicago in 1904. From 1907-1909, she taught French and history at Ripon College. After her father's death in 1913, she succeeded him as a member of the Board of Trustees at Ripon College and held this post until her death. She was a history instructor at the University of Chicago from 1914-1918. From 1929-1934, she was a counselor in the history department. Shirley Farr traveled to France as peace was declared at the end of WWI. She worked with wounded American soldiers at a base hospital in Hiers. She had attended undergraduate school in Paris and worked as a researcher in the Paris Archives. She became involved with the newly formed organization, The Women's Overseas Service League, which provided support to needy overseas volunteers. For a time she was this organization's national president. Farr then lived in Washington D.C. from 1921-1922 at the club house of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and had a position as assistant editor of the "American Historical Review". She served as vice-president and committee member of the AAUW, and was a member of the Rutland Branch. Shirley Farr is best remembered in Vermont for her contributions to the town of Brandon. In 1920, the year that women won the right to vote, Farr registered to vote in Brandon, and voted there every November thereafter. From 1942 on, she lived year-round in a family home in Brandon. She represented the town in the state legislature in 1945 and 1947. She served as a Vermont Elector during President Eisenhower's first election. Shirley Farr served as a board member of several businesses: the Vermont Children's Aid Society, The Vermont State Symphony Orchestra, and the Brandon library. Knowingly or unknowingly, Farr's funding of the Vermont Children's Aid Society indirectly supported Vermont's Eugenics Survey in the late 1920s. Farr is remembered for her generous philanthropy. She gifted Branbury Beach and nearby forest lands, which are now the site of a state park. She also made it possible for many students to receive an education, contributing scholarship money to Ripon College, the University of Vermont, and the AAUW.

Ph.B. (Bachelors of Philosophy), University of Chicago, (1904).

Educator Writer Legislator Civic Leader

Sabra Field is a well-known printmaker, whose woodcuts captured a pastoral view of Vermont in the 1970s. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she spent her early years in New York and Connecticut, although her family history can be traced back to Vermont in the late 1700's. Field graduated with honors in the arts from Middlebury College, where Arthur K.D. Healy inspired her to become an artist. She studied printmaking under Russell T. Limbach at Wesleyan University and graduated with a Masters of Arts in Teaching. Field married and had two boys. She taught high school art for several years before her marriage ended, and she moved with her children to Vermont. Field set up a printmaking studio in an old stage coach tavern in East Barnard, and became a full-time working artist. She made wood-block prints of Vermont's landscape using simple forms and rich, intense colors. In 1975, Sabra Field won the Vermont Bicentennial poster contest. Since then, her work as been comissioned by UNICEF, Dartmouth College, IBM, and Middlebury College. In 1989, she made a stained glass window for Darthmouth Hitchcock Medical Center Chapel. In 1991, she was asked by the U.S. Postal Service to create a stamp commemorating Vermont's Bicentennial of statehood. Governor Madeline Kunin named Field an Extraordinary Vermonter in 1991 and she received the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts from Governor Howard Dean in 1999. Through her work, Sabra Field has expressed her vision of sprituality through the portrayal of the Vermont pastoral ideal. She continues to work in East Barnard and is married to wildlife painter Spencer Field.

BA, Middlebury College M.A.T., Wesleyan University (1959)

Artist Printmaker High School Art Teacher

Dorothy Canfield Fisher was born in Lawrence, Kansas to parents of Vermont descent. Her father's family had settled in Vermont shortly after the French and Indian War. As a child, Fisher was an avid learner, and traveled often with her family to Europe to study the arts. She attended a boarding school in Paris. Her father, James, became Chancellor of the University of Nebraska, and later, president of the National Education Association. When he became president of Ohio State University, the family moved again to Columbus. Fisher's family believed women should have the same educational opportunities as men. She attended Ohio State, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1899. She then attended graduate school in Paris, studied German in Hanover, and worked at the British Museum. On returning from Europe, Fisher lived with her family in New York City, where her father now worked as librarian for Columbia University. Here, Fisher began writing articles for publications such as, "The Outlook", the "Times", and "Harper's Bazaar". While studying for her doctorate in French, she alternated terms in European universities with terms in New York at Columbia University. She received her PhD in French in 1904. In 1907, Dorothy married John Fisher, a law student from New York. The couple moved to Arlington, Vermont that year to pursue careers as free-lance writers. They had two children, Sally and James. Dorothy Canfield Fisher was the author of many novels and short stories throughout her lifetime. Some of these include: "Hillsboro People" (1915) (which is set in Arlington, VT), "The Bent Twig" (1915), several books influenced by Italian educator, Dr. Maria Montessori, including, "The Montessori Mother" (1912), three volumes of short stories influenced by her family's experiences in the French war camps and clinics of WWII including, "Home Fires in France" (1918), home and family novels including, "Her Son's Wife" (1926), and several historical children's books such as, "Paul Revere and the Minute Men" (1950). Dorothy Canfield Fisher was a member of the first board of the Book-of-the-Month Club, where she played an important role in promoting such noted writers as Pearl Buck, Isaac Dinesen, and Richard Wright. She was also a member of the Vermont Historical Society, which she joined in 1921. Fisher is credited with bringing the Montessori Method of teaching to the United States from Europe, and being the first woman to serve on the Vermont Board of Education. Eleanor Roosevelt named Fisher one of the ten most influential women in the United States. Fisher is remembered for her activism in war-related causes, such as her work with war blind in France. She established the Fund to Aid French Children. She helped children of refugees by providing them with summer homes. She also worked with the Children's Crusade for Children, and was recognized by several organizations for her humanitarian work. Much of her humanitarian work was done through written contributions that raised awareness in the U.S. about the war in Europe. She contributed to works such as, "The City of Man: A Declaration on World Democracy" and "America Organizes to Win the War". Fisher was honored with many Doctor of Letters degrees, including those from Middlebury College (1921), the University of Vermont (1922), and Dartmouth College (1922). The Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award was established before her death in 1958.

BA, Ohio State (1899) Doctorate, French, Columbia University (1904) Honorary Doctorates, Middlebury College (1921), University of Vermont (1922), Dartmouth College (1922)

British Museum Writer Activist Humanitarian

Helen Hartness Flanders was a folk music collector. She was born in Springfield, Vermont in 1890. Her father was Governor James Hartness. Flanders was educated at Dana Hall, Wellesley where she recieved her highschool diploma. In 1911, she was married to Ralph E. Flanders, who became a U.S. Senator. They had three children together. Helen Hartness Flanders was commissioned by the Vermont Commission on Country Life in 1930 to record, collect, and edit folk songs from Vermont and the rest of New England. She published six volumes of songs, including: "Vermont Folk Songs and Ballads" (1931), "Country Songs of Vermont" (1937), and "The Green Mountain Songster" (1939). She collected over 4000 songs throughout her lifetime. One of the reasons Flanders felt a sense of urgency in collecting these songs was that, in the 1930's, electricity was just coming to Vermont. She was concerned people would stop singing traditional songs in traditional settings and just listen to the radio. So, in many cases, her first recordings were made in farmhouses that had no electricity. The recordings were made on wax cylinders, and the car cigarette lighter was used as a source of electricity. Between 1939 and 1949 aluminum and acetate discs were used, followed by reel-to-reel tapes. In 1941, she presented the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection to Middlebury College. This collection is regarded as one of the finest American ballad collections in the country. At Middlebury College, Flanders' travelling partner from the Spring of 1940, Marguerite Olney, became curator of the collection and helped to expand it. In 1942, Middlebury College awarded Helen Hartness Flanders an honorary Master of Arts degree. Flanders lectured at universities in New England, at the Library of Congress, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She corresponded with a wide circle of fellow collectors and ethnomusicologists. Helen Hartness Flanders died in 1972, leaving behind a priceless musical legacy.

Dana Hall School

Folk music collector

Hartness, James (1861-1934)

Born in Jericho, Vermont in 1830, her father was exceptionally wealthy and reported in the 1870 census that he had $300,000 in personal property and $70,000 in real estate and mortgages. Fletcher never married, and moved to Burlington with her parents when she was twenty years old. After her father died, Fletcher and her mother grew reclusive and depended on Michael Kelley, their coachman and handyman. In 1873, the Fletcher women gave the city of Burlington $10,000 for books and another $10,000 to build a library. They later gave an additional $4,000 to print a catalog of the books in the Fletcher Free Library, which was named in their honor. Fletcher's mother, who was also named Mary, died in 1876, which left her daughter as the sole heir of a $400,000 fortune. She used most of the money to finance a state sponsored, nonprofit public hospital in Burlington, which opened in 1879 and was named the Mary Fletcher Hospital. Fletcher also established the Mary Fletcher Training School for Nurses in 1882. In the winter of 1885, Fletcher had a severe cold, and when told she had only a few hours to live, she asked to die in the hospital she founded. Some reports state that Fletcher died from tuberculosis.

Philanthropist

Frances Frost was raised in St. Albans, Vermont. She attended Middlebury College, until, during her junior year, she became pregnant by her boyfriend, W. Gordon Blackburn. The couple left school, and in 1926 a son, Paul, was born. They had another child, Jean, and lived in South Burlington, where Frances wrote for the Burlington "Daily News". She enrolled at the University of Vermont, and in 1929 was recognized by Yale University as its "Young Poet of the Year" for her poem, "Hemlock Wall". She taught creative writing while at UVM, and received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1931. Frances Frost achieved celebrity status around this time, publishing several volumes of poetry, including: "Blue Harvest" (1931), "These Acres" (1932), "Pool in the Meadow"(1933), and the acclaimed, "Woman of This Earth" (1934). In 1936, her novel, "Innocent Summer" "made quite a stir". The autobiographical, "Yoke of Stars" was published in 1939, and several more novels followed in the early 1940's. Frost spent many summers during the 1930's at an artists' retreat, the MacDowell Colony, in Peterboro, NH. During WWII, after her first marriage had failed, Frost moved to New York City, and became a taxi-cab driver. Around this time, she was asked to put together a book of stories about the United Nations for young people around the world. She used folklore from 17 countries to produce the collection, "Legends of the United Nations", which was a great success. She went on to write more than a dozen children's books. Frances Frost lived in Greenwich Village in NY until her death in 1959.

B.A., Philosophy, University of Vermont, (1931)

Writer Creative Writing Teacher at the University of Vermont Taxi-cab driver

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State/Province

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Continent

Sarah Alden Derby Gannett, daughter of Ethel Carow Roosevelt and granddaughter of Theodore Roosevelt, moved to Brattleboro in 1946 after marrying Robert Gannett, who was a lawyer and eventually a well known Vermont State Senator. Together, they had three children. Sarah was warmly known by all as "Aldie". Throughout her life, she contributed immensely to both Brattleboro area institutions and Vermont organizations, including the Vermont Folklife Center. Her "great pleasure and great interest" was the Winston Prouty Center for Preschool Handicapped Children in Brattleboro, which provides early training for disabled children. She also worked with Planned Parenthood and the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center. She helped found the Brattleboro Music Center in the 1940's. "Aldie" Gannett led the effort to save portions of Vermont's Long Trail by creating an awareness of the importance of preserving the land around it and by raising thousands of dollars to buy the abutting land of approximately 60 miles of its length. She personally hiked its entire 265 mile length. She was appointed to the Governor's Conference on the Future of Vermont's Heritage in 1982. On Monday, September 22, 2003, a reception was held at the Theodore Roosevelt Gallery in the Pusey Library at Harvard to mark the donation, by the family of the late Sarah Alden Derby Gannett, of Theodore Roosevelt's famous "Pigskin Library" to the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard.

Honorary JD, University of Vermont

Community Organizer

Lena Giudici was born in Barre, VT. She graduated from Spaulding High School in 1917 and then went on to Boston University where she studied law and accounting. She graduated from Boston University in 1920 and became the first woman admitted to the Massachussetts Bar. She then moved to Vermont in 1921 where she became the third woman admitted to the Vermont Bar. Lena Giudici rarely practiced law, but remained a member of the Bar. She primarily did accounting work for granite firms. She served on the Board of the Office of Price Administration, which was set up to monitor prices at the end of World War II. Giudici also served as President of the Barre Branch of the Vermont Federation of Professional and Business Women's Club, and was Treasurer of the Vermont State Federation. She attended several conferences through the Federation and organized the State Federation convention that was held in Barre on May 22-23, 1929.

LL.B., Boston University (1920)

Lawyer Accountant

Marion Simpson Gray was a teacher, a tireless public servant, and an advocate for issues involving women and seniors. She served on the Governor's Commission on Women and was president of both the Green Mountain Chapter of the Older Women's League and the Council of Vermont Elders among many other organizations. The daughter of W. Arthur Simpson and Ruth Hoffman, Marion Simpson was born on a farm in Lyndonville, Vermont. She graduated from Lyndon Institute in 1935 and married Russell Gray the following year. They had two children and farmed in Kirby from 1946 until 1955, when Marion divorced her husband and returned to school. She received a teaching degree from Lyndon State College in 1958, the same year her daughter graduated. Gray obtained her first teaching job in St. Albans, Vermont, where she taught elementary school from 1958 to 1960. She subsequently moved to Brentwood, Long Island, in an effort to boost her wages and taught in elementary school there for twenty-two years before retiring in 1982. During her tenure, she became active in the teachers' union and raised funds for children's scholarships. After her retirement, Gray returned to Montpelier, Vermont, and became active in the community on women's issues. She advocated for passage of the Vermont Equal Rights Amendment from 1984 to 1986 and helped organize the Vermont Women's State Fair held in Barre in 1987. She served on the Governor's Commission on Women for ten years from 1988 to 1998 and was appointed to the Health Policy Council from 1992 to 1996. Gray could often be found at the Vermont Statehouse in her role as advocate for older women. She was a co-founder and long-time President of the Green Mountain Chapter of the Older Women's League and President of the Council of Vermont Elders (COVE) from 1989 to1994. In 1990, she played the staring role in "Marion's Medication Mishaps," a video sponsored by OWL about the dangers of drug interactions. She helped found and became chair of LEAD International, (Leadership, Education, Action, Diversity), an intergenerational organization devoted to encouraging women to take an active part in civic life. After Gray's death in 2004, LEAD sponsored the Marion Gray Memorial Scholarship Fund Women's History Month Contest in her honor. Gray's public service went beyond advocacy. She served on the board of Vermont Public Television from 1988 to 1992 and Vermont Public Interest Research Group from 2001 to 2004. She also volunteered as a public guardian at the probate court for women without relatives or friends able to represent them. An avid reader, she organized a book group for older women and served on the board of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. In 2002 the Department of Aging and Disabilities presented Gray with the much-deserved Governor's Service Award.

Lyndon Institute (1935) Teaching Degree, Lyndon State College (1958)

Farmer Teacher President of the Council of Vermont Elders

Henrietta "Hetty" Green was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1834 and had a Quaker upbringing. She was the daughter of Edward Robinson, who controlled the Isaac Howland Jr. Company, a wealthy whaling firm. Green grew up around business and learned about money, investments and the stock market at a young age. Her father died in 1865 and left her as the sole heiress of $1,000,000 in cash and $4,500,000 in real estate. Two weeks later, her aunt Sylvia died, whom Green had lived with as a teenager. Green received a portion of her aunt's estate, but she contested the will with a document confirming that she was sole inheritor. When the case was brought to court, Green was accused of forging signatures, but eventually the case was dropped. Green married her financial advisor, Edward Green of Bellows Falls, Vermont, and initially the couple moved to London. Although Green denied it, they may have left the country to escape forgery charges stemming from the failed lawsuit. When they returned to the United States in 1875, the couple and their two children, Ned and Sylvia, lived with Edward Green's mother in Bellows Falls. Green invested in railroads, real estate, and goverment bonds while continuing to be extremely frugal with her money. Stories about Green's frugality abounded, including that she paid her laundress less than others by ordering her to wash only the section of her dresses that trailed on the ground. While she dressed her children in patched, oversize clothing, her income was between five and ten thousand dollars a day. Her frugality may have had damaging effects on her son Ned's health. When he was fourteen, he dislocated his knee and Green sought free medical help. When she was asked to pay, she refused treatment for him. Five years later, he had another accident with the same knee and his leg had to be amputated. The doctor reported that had Ned received proper medical care with his first injury, the amputation would not have been necessary. When the media learned of this incident, she was dubbed "The Witch of Wall Street" for her cruelty. Edward Green was a wealthy man, but he had fallen into debt. Hetty Green wanted to transfer her $25,000,000 in securities from the John J. Cisco and Son Banking House to the Chemical National Bank, but her request was refused because of her husband's debts. She eventually paid the $422,143.22 he owed, but separated from him because she could not tolerate his poor business investments. Green continued to build her fortune through railroad stocks and mortgages. She purchased large quantities of real estate, including two square miles in the west side of Chicago, owned docks in San Francisco, and held mortgages on numerous buildings. By 1900, she had a yearly income of $7,000,000 and by 1908 she was worth $158,000,000. With age, Green grew increasingly paranoid that people would kill her for her money. She moved frequently and stayed in cheap boarding houses or hotels. However, when her husband grew ill, she nursed him until his death in 1902. Green died in 1916 and left her $150 million estate to her son and daughter. At that time, she was considered the wealthiest woman in the world.

Businesswoman Investor

Margaret Hard was born at her parents' summer home in Manchester, Vermont in 1886. She was raised in Pennsylvania and New York and was a graduate of Columbia University's Teachers' College. She taught at the Chapin School, a private all-girls school in Manhattan, for several years and spent time studying with John Dewey. In 1907, Hard moved to Manchester, Vermont and four years later she married Walter Hard, Sr. They had two children, Ruth and Walter Hard, Jr., the latter became the editor of Vermont Life. The Hards were owners of the Johnny Appleseed Bookshop and in 1967 Hard published "A Memory of Vermont," which describes what it was like to run the bookshop. She devoted a significant amount of time to writing, and she and her husband published "This Is Vermont," an informal guidebook of the state in 1936. Hard also wrote a novel, "This Is Kate," about a young girl living in a Montreal convent in 1944 and many of her articles were collected in "Footloose in Vermont," which came out in 1969.

Pratt Institute High School Ethical Culture School Columbia University's Teacher College

Teacher Owner of Johnny Appleseed Bookshop Author

Lynn Heglund was the fourth Executive Director of the Governor's Commission on Women. She was also an active participant in the movement to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in Vermont.Lynn Heglund was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and was raised in Minnetonka, Minnesota. She received a B.A. in Political Science and Fine Arts from Goddard College in 1975 and did graduate and paralegal training at Woodbury Associates in Montpelier. She then earned her Masters in Public Administration at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Heglund was the Executive Director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont from 1976-1979 and spent a year as the Civil Rights Specialist at the Office of the Attorney General in Vermont. From 1982 to 1984, she was a development consultant and writer in residence at the Colony House and Dorset Theater in Dorset, Vermont. In 1984 she was appointed as the Executive Director of the newly named Governor's Commission on Women, where she actively sought the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Heglund resigned from this position in 1989.

University of Minnesota BA in Political Science and Fine Arts, Goddard College (1975) MPA in Public Administration, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University

Executive Director of the Governor's Commission on Women Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Civil Rights Specialist in the Office of the Attorney General Development Consultant

Abby Hemenway started her career as a teacher but soon turned her talents to collecting and preserving local poetry in Vermont, resulting in the publication of "The Poets and Poetry of Vermont" (1858). The success of this effort encouraged her to start the work of collecting the local histories of all Vermont's counties, resulting in the 5 volume "Vermont Historical Gazetteer", published between 1860 and 1892. Until her death in 1890, Hemenway managed her own publishing company, involving hundreds of people as researchers and writers. No one else in the United States had ever attempted collecting the history of every town in a state, a monumental task. The Gazetteer is still used as an important reference today. The only county that Hemenway did not complete was her own, Windsor County. Hemenway encountered many adversities in the collecting process, from floods to fires to lawsuits to constant financial problems. Abby Hemenway never married and converted to Catholicism at age 36. Being a single Catholic woman in a elite Protestant male dominated profession made the challenges of her work even more daunting. She was told "history is not suitable work for a woman". Hemenway took time off from the work of the Gazetteer to teach in Joliet, Illinois,returning to Chicago, Illinois in 1889 where she died, probably of a stroke, at the age of 61, with two volumes of the Gazetteer still to be finished. Her sister, Carrie Page, took up the task of finishing this work and continued running the publishing business. Unfortunately, the manuscript of the final volume on Windsor County ran into serious delays and ended up burning in a house fire.

Black River Academy

Teacher Writer Editor Publisher

Hemenway, Abby Maria (1828-1890)

The Passion of Abby Hemenway

Ellen Hoar was born in Barre, VT on November 28, 1887. She graduated from Spaulding High School in 1909. While at Spaulding, she led the women's basketball team to a championship victory. Along with being an athlete, Hoar was also an accomplished musician and performed amateur theater. Richard Hoar, her father, was an attorney in Barre. Hoar studied law in her father's office and then went on to the University of Maine where she received her LL.B degree in 1915. She was admitted to the Vermont Bar in 1914, before she graduated. Ellen Hoar was the third woman to receive a law degree from the University of Maine. While at law school, Ellen Hoar began her involvement in the women's suffrage movement. Hoar developed a friendship with a very notable women's suffrage leader, Carrie Chapman Catt. Catt played a leading role in the National American Woman Suffrage Association's campaign to win voting rights for women. Hoar helped her by passing out leaflets in the halls of the Maine legislature, promoting women's rights. Hoar's thesis for her degree of bachelor of law was titled, "The Securing to Women her Rights as an Individual and as a Citizen." Hoar practiced law at her father's office. In 1923, she worked with her father on the infamous Parker-Long case. Long, who strangled and killed a woman, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Hoar practiced law for ten years after her admission to the bar. She was also active in the community and a member of the Barre Congregational Church. She passed away, while still living in Barre, in 1963.

LL.B, University of Maine Law School (1915)

Attorney

Annie Howe was a board member and president of Howard Relief, a social agency in Burlington that helped the needy that is today's Howard Center. She was also a strong supporter of the Children's Aid Society and the Red Cross. During World War II, Howe knit socks for the troops overseas.

Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco, California in 1916. She and her family moved to New York State when she was a teenager, and Jackson graduated from Syracuse University in 1940 with a Bachelor's Degree in English. While at Syracuse, she was fiction editor of "The Syracusan," a campus humor magazine and founded "The Spectre," a literary magazine with future husband Stanley Edgar Hyman. In 1941, Jackson had her first short story published, "My Life with R.H. Macy," in The New Republic. The couple moved to North Bennington, Vermont in 1945, so that Hyman could take a teaching position at Bennington College. Jackson's writing career took off in 1948, when the New Yorker published her short story, "The Lottery," which describes an annual gathering where the inhabitants of a small town select one of their own to be stoned to death. Jackson wrote several other novels including "Hangsaman" (1951), "The Haunting of Hill House" (1959), and "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" (1962) and had pieces published in Mademoiselle, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Charm, The Yale Review, The Saturday Evening Post, and Reader's Digest. She also wrote two books about raising her four children, "Life Among the Savages" (1953) and "Raising Demons" (1957). Jackson died on August 8, 1965 at the age of forty-eight. Posthumously, her works have been collected into "Just An Ordinary Day" and "The Magic of Shirley Jackson."

BA in English, Syracuse University (1940)

Author

Denise R. Johnson is the first woman to serve on the Vermont Supreme Court. She was born in Wyandotte, Michigan and received her AB from Wayne State University, in Detroit, Michigan in 1969. She graduated from the University of Connecticut Law School with a JD degree in 1974 and was admitted to the bar in Connecticut. Over the next several years, Johnson practiced poverty law with New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Inc., while coming to Vermont to visit on a regular basis. After one extended visit, she and her husband decided they wanted to make Vermont their permanent home. Johnson accepted a teaching position at Vermont Law School from 1978-1979, and was admitted to the bar of the State of Vermont in 1980. She was appointed an Assistant Attorney General with the Office of the Attorney General in 1980, and served as the Chief of the Civil Rights Division. From 1982 to 1988 she was Chief of the Public Protection Division. In 1988, Johnson moved to private practice, and was also named Chair of the Vermont Human Rights Commission by Governor Madeleine Kunin. Vermont's first woman-led administration was a unique group, with a large number of woman appointees, many of whom were the first women to hold their positions. In 1986, 5 of 8 people in Kunin's inner staff were women; she had appointed women to 15 of 33 agency and department head positions, and to 169 of the 433 positions on commissions and boards. On December 3, 1990, Governor Madeleine Kunin appointed Johnson Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court; which made her the first woman to serve on the Vermont Supreme Court. She retired from the court in 2011. As a member of the Vermont Supreme Court, Johnson has heard many notable cases, such as Baker v. State, which set up Vermont's landmark Civil Union legislation. Johnson received her LLM from the University Of Virginia School Of Law in Law and its Administration. Johnson has been active in the American Bar Association, Judicial Division, serving as Chair of the Appellate Judges Conference. She has also served on the ABA Commission on IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts). She is a member of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She has been active in appellate judicial education on a national level. She enjoys spending time abroad and has lectured on United States law in Italy.

AB, Wayne State University (1969) JD, University of Connecticut School of Law (1974) LLM, University of Virginia School of Law (1995)

Lawyer Supreme Court Judge

Among the first Anglo women to travel through Vermont, Susannah Willard Johnson was captured by Abenakis at Fort No. 4, in Charlestown, New Hampshire. Her narrative about the captivity documents her war experience and early relations between white settlers and Abenakis in the region. Susannah was one of twelve children of Moses and Susanna Willard, who had migrated from Massachusetts to the frontier settlement at Charlestown, probably in the 1740s. Susannah married James Johnson and had three children by 1754. During the Seven Years' War, the settlement of about 180 people was vulnerable to attack by Abenakis, who lived in the region and were allied with the French. The Johnson family was planning to seek refuge further south at Northfield, Massachusetts, when Abenakis raided the town on August 30, 1754, capturing the family and several others. Johnson's narrative describes the movement of the captives north through Vermont, to St. Francis, and later to prison in Quebec. On the second day of their trip, she gave birth to her fourth child, Elizabeth Captive Johnson in Reading, Vermont. When the captives reached Montreal, they were turned over to the French to be ransomed or sold. In 1757, Susanna Johnson, her sister, and two daughters were sent to England in exchange for French prisoners. Subsequently, the Johnson family was reunited in Lancaster, Massachusetts, but James Johnshon was later killed during the war. Susanna returned to Charlestown, married John Hastings in 1762, and had seven more children. In 1796 Susanna Johnson's "A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Johnson: Containing an Account of her Sufferings During Four Years With the Indians and French" was published, partly from her oral testimony and from notes she and her husband made during their captivity. By that time, captivity narratives were a common literary genre designed to show the bravery of frontiersettlers. Johnson's story provides insights into Abenaki culture at the time and reveals her feelings about the ordeal from a woman's perspective. A memorial to Johnson and her fellow captives was erected on Route 106 in Reading, Vermont.

"Agnes Elizabeth, Princess Salm-Salm, led a Cinderella life, a fairy-tale life, yet she was almost entirely the architect of her own fortunes." Agnes Elizabeth Joy was born in Swanton, VT. As a child, she also lived in Georgia, VT and Phillipsburg, Quebec. She ran away to join the circus, and performed as an actress, dancer, and equestrienne under the name, Mlle. Agnes LeClercq. While visiting her sister in Washington, D.C. in 1861, Agnes Joy met Colonel Auguste Felix Salm-Salm, Prince of Westphalia. Agnes and Prince Salm-Salm were married on August 30, 1862. Salm-Salm's position in Washington ended shortly after, and Joy used her social connections to win Salm-Salm the commission of Colonel of the 8th New York Volunteers. During the Civil War, Salm-Salm fought in Virginia with the Army of the Potomac, and later served as Colonel of the 68th New York Volunteers stationed in Tennessee under Gen. James Steedman, who was under the command of the infamous General William Tecumseh Sherman. During this time, Agnes Joy once again used her social connections and received a captain's commission from the Governor of Illinois. This enabled her to travel south to be near her husband. She lived in the army camps and organized and commanded a nursing unit. Much of her life's work was spent as a combat nurse. Agnes Joy played an important role in gaining public acceptance of nursing as a woman's job. After the Civil War, Joy again helped to secure a position for Salm-Salm as civil and military governor of Northern Georgia, where he was made a brigadier-general. Shortly after, the Prince was called to fight in Mexico with the Austrian Emperor's brother, Maximillian. Emperor Franz-Joseph had sent his brother there in 1864 to establish Napoleon III's empire. In 1866, Prince Salm-Salm left to join the failing effort, and Princess Agnes followed shortly after. The Mexican people had elected Benito Juarez as President of the Republic. Maximillian and Prince Salm-Salm were captured and held at a prison in Vera Cruz. Agnes Joy had connections with the German Prime Minister in Mexico. She managed to meet with President Juarez, but when he refused her permission to go to the Mexican army headquarters at Queretaro, she stole a horse and went anyway. Here she met with General Escobedo and was allowed to visit her husband. She returned to Mexico City to plead with Juarez for the lives of Prince Salm-Salm and Maximillian. He promised to spare the Prince, but Joy returned to New York City doubtful. She was welcomed home as a celebrity and heroine. Prince Salm-Salm was set free, and, in 1867, he was reunited in Paris with Princess Agnes. Here she was introduced to the royal family at Westphalia. She was given a $1200 annuity by the Emperor of Austria in thanks for her work in Mexico. When the Franco-Prussian War began in 1870, Prince Salm-Salm was serving a Major commission in a Prussian Guards regiment. He and Agnes were stationed at Cob Lentz, Germany. Agnes Joy attained a captain's commission and traveled with her husband as a hospital assistant. She had attended surgical classes at the University of Bonn and helped care for both German and French soldiers. She also helped procure supplies and food for the soldiers. Prince Felix Salm-Salm was killed in battle in August 1870. His body was buried near the battlefield. Agnes Joy, once again using her social connections, retrieved her husband's body and brought it home for a proper Catholic burial. Joy continued nursing at the Queen Augusta hospital in Berlin. German Emperor William I recommended her for a medal, "The Order of the Iron Cross". She traveled to Switzerland as Baroness Stein. She lived in Italy at a convent while writing her memoirs, "Ten Years of My Life". Joy was briefly married to an Englishman, Charles Heneage, while living in Berlin. In 1899, she returned to the United States where she was made an honorary member of the Blenker Veterans Association. She spent her final years at an apartment in Karlsruhe.

University of Bonne

Circus entertainer Princess of Westphalia Military nurse and surgical assistant

Louise Andrews Kent was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, although she spent her summers in Calais, Vermont. She became interested in Vermont's heritage and tradition, and began to collect recipes from the area. She received an education from Simmons College, going on to become a writer and columnist. She wrote for the Boston Traveler under the pen name Theresa Tempest. In 1912, she married Rich Kent and had three children with him. Later in her career, she took on another pen name, Mrs. Appleyard, under which she began to author cookbooks. In 1941, she wrote, "Mrs. Appleyard's Year," in which she compiled and published Vermont and New England-based recipes. She published many volumes of cookbooks with recipes from the area such as "Mrs. Appleyard's Family Kitchen: A Treasury of Vermont Country Recipes" and "The Vermont Year Round Cookbook: Recipes for all seasons from Mrs. Appleyard's Kitchen". Louise Andrews Kent also wrote 16 books that were not compilations of recipes, including "The Brookline Trunk", "He Went with Drake" and "He Went With Marco Polo". Kent's husband, Rich Kent owned the Kent Tavern in Calais, which Louise worked to preserve as a representation of rural Vermont life in the early 19th century. In the 1950's she served as chair of the Kent Tavern committee as a member of the Vermont Historical Society board. With the help of her family and neighbors, she also acquired many of the collections that furnished the Tavern. Although she was not born in Vermont, Louise Andrews Kent fell in love with the rich culture of the state and played an active role in historic preservation of land and lore. She passed away in 1969, leaving a rich collection of fiction and non-fiction writings behind.

Simmons College

Writer Columnist Recipe Collector

Keyes was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, but her family had ties to Newbury, Vermont. She was a descendant of Thomas Johnson, one of Newbury's earliest settlers, and spent summers at The Oxbow, the Johnson homestead. Upon the death of her mother, Keyes became the owner of The Oxbow. Frances Wheeler married Henry Wilder Keyes in 1904. Henry Keyes served as Governor of New Hampshire from 1917-1919 and was a United States Senator from 1919-1938. Keyes began writing in Washington, D.C. as a means to bring in some extra income, and her first novel, "The Old Gray Homestead," was published in 1919. For fifteen years, Keyes was a feature writer for Good Housekeeping Magazine and wrote the column "Letters From a Senator's Wife." She also served as a foreign correspondent for Good Housekeeping and wrote articles for various other women's magazines. In 1937, she became editor of the National Historical Magazine, but resigned when Senator Keyes died in 1938. Keyes began writing full-time to support her family and published more than fifty books that included novels, poetry, memoirs, cookbooks and biographies of saints. She bought the historic Beauregard House in New Orleans and spent her winters there writing. Many of her novels are set in Louisiana, including her best seller, "Dinner at Antoines" (1948). The Beauregard House has been renamed the Beauregard-Keyes House and is open to the public. Visitors can see Keyes' collection of antique dolls and tea pots and can purchase copies of her books in the gift store. Frances Keyes founded the Keyes Foundation to preserve historic homes, including her own in New Orleans, and to support writers. Keyes died in 1970 and is buried in Newbury, Vermont.

Author Editor

Caroline "Carrie" Burnham Kilgore worked to gain women the same rights as men in both of her chosen fields: medicine and the law. She was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the state of New York, the first female graduate from the Pennsylvania Law School and the first female admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar. Carrie Burnham Kilgore was born in Craftsbury, Vermont and attended Craftsbury Academy and Newbury Seminary. She was orphaned at age twelve, so she had to finance her own education by teaching and doing domestic work. In 1858, Kilgore moved to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin to live with her sister. For the next five years, she taught in a variety of schools throughout Wisconsin. Kilgore left Wisconsin for New York City, where she enrolled in the Hygeio-Therapeutic College and Dio Lewis' Boston Normal Institute for Physical Institution. She received her medical degree and diploma in 1865, making her the first woman to receive a medical degree in the state of New York. She then took a job as assistant physician at the Lewis' Health Institute. Kilgore settled in Philadelphia, where she taught at a "French School for Young Ladies' and studied law with Damon Kilgore, who became her husband in 1876. Kilgore had grown interested in the women's rights movement and represented the Citizen's Suffrage Association of Philadelphia in the conventions of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Ten years after her first attempt, Kilgore became the first woman to gain admission to the Pennsylvania Law School (1881) and received the L.L.B. in 1883. To gain admission to the Pennsylvania Bar, she petitioned the state General Assembly three times and was finally successful in 1886. In 1885, she was admitted to the Orphans' Court of Philadelphia, the state Supreme Court and all the lower courts, and, in 1890, she was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. Damon Kilgore died in 1888 and Carrie Kilgore took over his practice. She was a member of the Philadelphia Aeronautical Recreation Society, and was the only female passenger in the first hot air balloon ride that the society took. Kilgore died of cancer in 1909 and is buried in Craftsbury, Vermont.

Craftsbury Academy Newbury Seminary MD, Hygeia-Therapeutic College (1865) University of Pennsylvania Law School (1883)

Teacher Doctor Lawyer

Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John's, Antigua as Elaine Potter Richardson in 1949. When she finished school, she moved to the United States to be an au pair in New York and took writing classes at the New School for Social Research. Kincaid won a full scholarship to Franconia College in New Hampshire but only attended the school for two years. She took the pen name Jamaica Kincaid in 1973 and got a job as a staff writer at the New Yorker in 1976. She stayed with the New Yorker until 1995, even though she and her husband, Allen Shawn, moved to Bennington, Vermont in 1985 to teach at Bennington College. Her writing talents developed over the years and she has published numerous short stories, essays, and novels. Her works include: "At the Bottom of the River"(1984), "Annie John" (1985), "Lucy" (1990), "The Autobiography of My Mother" (1996), "My Brother" (1997), and "My Garden (Book)"(1999), in which she describes her garden in Bennington, Vermont. Her most recent works are "Talk Stories" (2001), "Seed Gathering Atop the World" (2002), and "Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalayas" (2005). Kincaid is currently a visiting lecturer on African and African-American Studies and on English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Wesleyan University in 2008.

Franconia College (2 years) Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Wesleyan University (2008)

Author Lecturer

Natalie Kinsey-Warnock grew up on a dairy farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. When she married her husband, Tom Warnock, they built a new house on the land she grew up on. After graduating from Johnson State College in 1978 with majors in art and athletic training, she decided to pursue writing children's books. Her first published book was called "The Canada Geese Quilt," which was a biographical story about her grandmother. Since then she has published the following: "As Long As There Are Mountains," "The Night The Bells Rang," "In the Language of Loons," "Sweet Memories Still," "If Wishes Were Horses," "Lumber Camp Library," "A Doctor Like Papa," "Gifts from the Sea," "A Farm of Her Own," "The Bear That Heard Crying," "Nora's Ark," "A Christmas Like Helen's," "From Dawn till Dusk," "The Fiddler of the Northern Lights," "The Summer of Stanley," "On a Starry Night," "Wilderness Cat," "When Spring Comes," and "The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar." Kinsey-Warnock considers herself an athlete, naturalist, artist, and writer. She has rescued numerous pets, including dogs, cats, and horses and enjoys playing the bagpipes. Today, she continues to write books along with studying her family's genealogy and visiting schools throughout Vermont.

BA, Johnson State College (1978)

Author Ski Instructor

Madeleine May Kunin made both state and national history in 1984. That was the year the media dubbed "The Year of the Woman" because the Democrats had nominated Geraldine Ferraro to be Vice-President, a first, and more women than ever before were running for state-wide offices, including ten for the U.S. Senate. But, as Election Day came to a close, women had not achieved the anticipated gains. Ronald Reagan won in a landslide. Only the incumbent Republican woman, Nancy Kassenbaum, took a Senate seat. The bright spot was in Vermont where Madeleine May Kunin became the first woman Governor, the third Democrat elected Governor in Vermont, and the fourth woman in U.S. history to achieve this office in her own right. Trained as a journalist, Madeleine May Kunin had not planned on a career in politics. Like many women, her political activism started in her own neighborhood. In 1972 she was encouraged to run for a seat in the Vermont House of Representatives. Serving for three terms, she was elected to the leadership position of majority whip and appointed as Chair of the important budget-writing Appropriations Committee. She was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1978 and 1980. When Governor Snelling said he would not run again in 1982, she immediately declared her candidacy, and although he changed his mind, she stayed in that difficult race. She did not win, but her credible campaign served her well when seeking the governor's office again in 1984. In a tight race against the Republican Attorney General, John Easton, she focused on her extensive experience and setting a new direction for Vermont. This included improving education at all levels and making environmental protection a priority. After she won, the first order of business, however, was to restrain spending so that the state's significant deficit would be eliminated. By 1986 the deficit was replaced with a surplus. In a departure from tradition, Governor Kunin devoted her 1986 state-of-the-state address to the sole topic of education. Within months of taking office she acted to make kindergarten available to all Vermont children. She rarely visited a town in Vermont without visiting a school. She secured enactment of a new state aid formula that provided a greater share to schools most in need. She proposed sharing between high property wealth and low property wealth towns, and while that concept did not pass during her terms, it provided the basic concept behind Act 60, which passed as a result of the Vermont Supreme Court's Brigham decision. She also called for improvements in school facilities, teacher salaries and libraries. In 1990, Forbes Magazine named her one of the nation's top ten Governors for education. One of her most significant achievements is Act 200, which provides for an integrated land use planning process at the local and regional level. This comprehensive legislation, intended to complement Act 250, Vermont's premier environmental law, was highly controversial at the time. In Governor Kunin's words, this law was "about a vision - a vision of the future of Vermont which holds onto its fundamentally rural character and close sense of community". Another hallmark of her tenure is Vermont's very successful Housing and Conservation Trust Fund that has conserved thousands of acres of land and provided for much needed affordable housing. Governor Kunin is probably most thought of as a visionary environmental leader. She has a long list of accomplishments in that area. She took actions to protect Vermont's rivers and streams from both direct discharges and from septic discharges; she established a system of classifications for the state's rivers to ensure the preservation of high water quality. She created a mini-superfund to deal with hazardous waste removal as well as a comprehensive waste management program to reduce waste at the source and to encourage removal as well as a comprehensive waste management program to reduce waste at the source and to encourage recycling. She dealt with the environmental threat from underground storage tanks through a program of inspection, removal and replacement. And, long before the spotlight was on global warming, her energy plan called for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and reduction in per capita energy use through greater energy efficiency. With families and children in mind, Governor Kunin launched the highly successful Dr. Dynasaur program that provides poor children with access to health care and she introduced the innovative ? Program that provides critical support services for women to move from welfare to work. Recognizing that court proceedings involving families and young children, required special procedures and resources, she provided leadership to the successful effort to establish a family court in Vermont. During her tenure, up to Forty-five percent of the top jobs in government were held by women. These included a number of firsts such as the first woman Secretary of Transportation and the first woman to serve as Commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation not only in Vermont but also in the country. She appointed the first women Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, Denise Johnson. When she took office, women held about 24% of the positions on the numerous boards and commissions essential to government operation in Vermont. By 1990 that number had jumped to 40%. Following her career in Vermont, Madeleine Kunin went on to a distinguished career in the federal government. After serving as one of three directors for the transition of President-elect William Clinton, she joined his Administration first as Deputy Secretary of Education and then as United States Ambassador to Switzerland. She was born in Switzerland and fled that country as a child with her widowed mother and brother as the Nazis advanced in Europe. One of her most poignant experiences occurred as Ambassador when, working with the Swiss government to uncover bank accounts of Holocaust victims and their surviving families, she found an account in her mother's name. Upon leaving office in 1991 Governor Kunin founded The Institute for Sustainable Communities, (www.iscvt.org) an international organization, built on Vermont's ethic of civic participation as the best way to create better communities. ISC works across the globe on problems ranging from environmental degradation to AIDS education and prevention. In 1994 Alfred A. Knopf published her autobiography, Living a Political Life. She has held appointments at Middlebury College, Saint Michael's College and the University of Vermont where she is presently a Marsh Scholar.

B.A., University of Massachusetts, Amherst M.S., Columbia M.A. in English, University of Vermont

Journalist Politician U.S. Ambassador

Kunin, Madeleine May (b. 1933)

Living a Political Life

The community leader and healer Martha Morits was born into an old Missisquoi family, married John Lampman, a man from another Abenaki leadership line, and built a small house and barn in the marsh during the late 1800’s. Families would come together in this area known as Maquam (named for the active beavers that share this environment) to fish the Bay in the spring, to gather berries and medicinal plants during summer, and to hunt and trap the abundant game animals in the fall and winter. Often, they would camp the whole summer there, making trips into the village to sell their surplus gatherings. Always, there was dancing, singing, and storytelling at Grandma Lampman’s. Here, families were sustained. Far into the twentieth century, the Lampmans and their relations lived in and around the marsh, learning and living from the bountiful resources of Maquam. In 1991, Abenaki community members organized to save the area in Swanton where Grandma Lampman had lived. It was owned by a developer who had plans for building houses on the land, so the group got the area designated as an official Wildlife Refuge. Maquam Wildlife Refuge also includes sacred burial sites. A plaque serves as a marker of the location where Lampman's house once stood.

Teacher Healer

Andrea Mead Lawrence was the first American alpine skier to win two gold medals in any Winter Olympics (1952). Named the "Greatest Winter Olympian of All Time" in 2002, she was the first inductee to the Vermont Ski Museum Hall of Fame. Andrea Mead was the daughter of Janet B. and Bradford B. Mead, founders of the Pico Peak Ski Area. The family lived across the road from the ski area, and Andy, as she was called, began skiing at an early age. She began racing competitively by the time she was ten years old. Although her father died in 1942, her mother continued to operate Pico. Andrea qualified for the U.S. Women's Olympic Team in 1947 and at fifteen was the youngest member of the team at the 1948 Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. She placed eighth in the giant slalom and eleventh in the slalom. In 1950 she was the youngest winner of the Harriman Cup in downhill, slalom and combined events. Andrea Mead married David G. Lawrence, also an alpine skier, on March 13, 1951 in Davos, Switzerland, while both were on the international pre-Olympic circuit. Andrea served as captain of the 1952 U.S. Women's Ski Team in Oslo, Norway, and won a gold medal in the slalom and another in the giant slalom. Her picture graced the cover of Time Magazine on January 21, 1952. She continued to ski competitively between 1952 and 1956, but also give birth to three of her five children. She was a member of the 1956 U.S. Women's Olympic Ski Team and placed fourth in the giant slalom before retiring from competition. Lawrence was the only American skier to compete in three Olympics and was the only American skier to ever win two gold medals in a single Olympics. During the early 1960s, Lawrence organized recreation programs and became interested in environmental preservation. She provided skiing commentary for ABC News during the 1960 and 1964 Olympics. After divorcing her husband in 1967, she moved to Mammoth Lakes, California, the following year. Lawrence served on the Mono County Board of Supervisors for sixteen years and helped to found the Friends of Mammoth. In 1999, Lawrence was selected as Honorary State Park Ranger by the California State Park Ranger Association for her advocacy of California's State Parks and for a lifetime of contribution to the conservation movement. In 2001 Lawrence won the Havoline Star Award for her contributions to the environment and the Eastern Sierra community. The Havoline Star Award honors a U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team alumni who has made significant contributions to his or her community. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, Lawrence was honored as the Greatest Winter Olympian of all time by Bud Greenspan and General Motors. She was inducted into the Vermont Ski Museum Hall of Fame in 2002, and an image of her skiing serves as the logo for the Vermont Ski Museum.

Professional Skier Environmentalist

Lisa Zobian Lindahl is co-founder of Jogbra, Inc., the original maker of the "jogbra" women's sports garment. Lindahl jumpstarted another Vermont business, Bellisse; she helped Lesli Bell to design and market a specialty compression garment for breast cancer survivors. She has also devoted her time to educating the public about epilepsy, a disease she has lived with since childhood. Lindahl grew up in Montclair, New Jersey and took secretarial courses at the Katharine Gibbs School. She moved to Vermont and attended the University of Vermont, where she received her BS in Education in 1977. She quickly began her graduate studies, but they were interrupted when she came up with the idea of a bra designed especially for running and began developing it with Polly Smith, a costume designer and life-long friend. The first truly workable prototype was two jockstraps sewn together. Lindahl met her future business partner, Hinda Miller, that summer at the Royall Tyler Theater, where she was Smith's assistant. Together they built the company that has made sports bras a wardrobe staple. One of their early designs is in the permanent costume collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and another is in the Smithsonian. During Jogbra, Inc.'s formative years, Lindahl served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Playtex Apparel purchased the company in 1990 and Lindahl continued as Co-President of the Jogbra Division of Playtex. In 1991, Playtex Apparel was purchased by the Sara Lee Corporation and the jogbra is now marketed as Champion Sportswear. Lindahl has worked tirelessly to educate others about epilepsy. She served as Senior Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Epilepsy Foundation, where she established The Women and Epilepsy Health Initiative, which creates opportunities for research studies about gender differences in epilepsy. For her efforts with The Women and Epilepsy Health Initiative, the Epilepsy Foundation gave her the National Personal Achievement Award. In 1999 Senator Jeffords of Vermont also bestowed Lindahl with a Congressional Commendation for her work in epilepsy education. Lindahl has written various articles about epilepsy including a chapter in the book, Women with Epilepsy: A Handbook of Health and Treatment Issues. Lindahl's other talents including teaching and community development. She has taught marketing at the Women's Small Business Program at Trinity College in Burlington, Vermont and was the co-author of the course's text, Minding Your Business. Lindahl has also taught at Champlain College and served as a Trustee of the Vermont Trust, an organization dedicated to preserving Vermont's landscape. She was a member of the Mountain Group, a support network for entrepreneurs and has been nominated for the Boss of the Year Award by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers' Association and Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Inc. Magazine. In 2001, Lindahl teamed up with Lesli Bell to develop the Vermont based business, Bellisse. Together, they designed and marketed a specialty compression garment for breast cancer survivors. This project was aptly suited to Lindahl because of her design experience, and the two women created the Compressure Comfort Bra. Lindahl received her Masters Degree in Culture and Spirituality from Holy Names University in California in 2007. In addition to being a visual artist and doing motivational speaking, Lindahl also continues her research and studies into philosophy and is writing a book about current cultural paradigm shifts. She divides her time between homes in Vermont, South Carolina, and California.

Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School BS in Education, University of Vermont (1977) MA in Culture and Spirituality, Holy Names University (2007)

Co-founder of Jogbra, Inc. President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Jogbra, Inc. Co-President of the Jogbra Division of Playtex Senior Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of America

Rose Lucia was a teacher, principal, supervisor of rural schools and author of the popular "Peter and Polly" children's book series. The School Street Bridge in Montpelier, Vermont, was renamed the Rose Lucia Bridge in honor of her achievements and contributions to the State of Vermont. Rose Lucia was born in Vergennes, Vermont, but spent most of her life in Montpelier. She attended Montpelier Public Schools and went to the Allen Brothers English and Classical School in West Newton, Massachusetts. Lucia started teaching third-grade in 1893 at the elementary school in Montpelier and served as Principal of the East State Street School from 1907 to 1921. She combined strict discipline with a quest for better instruction and became an advocate for the Montessori method of teaching. After her appointment as Supervisor of the Rural Schools of Vermont in 1921, she and Dorothy Canfield Fisher developed a system of standards for rural schools that improved methods of instruction. Lucia was active in the Vermont Teachers' Retirement Fund Association and the Young Women's Christian Association. Lucia's other passion in life was writing. Her first book, "Stories of American Discoverers for Little Americans," was geared to six to eight year olds and told the stories of the world's greatest explorers. She also wrote a series of five books about Peter and Polly, modeled after a brother and sister in East St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Published worldwide by the American Book Company, the books proved to be very successful. The "Peter and Polly" books have been collected into one volume and can be purchased at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier, Vermont. Lucia died in Santa Monica, California, on February 7, 1938. In memory of Lucia and her achievements, the 1993-1994 Vermont State Legislature renamed the School Street Bridge in Montpelier, Vermont, the Rose Lucia Bridge, making it the first structure in the town to be named after a woman.

Allen Brothers English and Classical School, West Newton, Massachusetts (1892)

Teacher Principal of the East State Street School Vermont Supervisor of Rural Schools Author

Eleanor M. Luse founded the Speech and Hearing Clinic at the University of Vermont in 1953. Eleanor Luse was born in Chicago, Illinois and received her Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate degrees from Northwestern University. She taught at Coe College in Iowa, the Boston School of Physical Education and Wells College in New York. While on sabbatical from Wells College, she received her Doctorate in voice and speech pathology. In 1947, she came to the University of Vermont, where she was given the task of starting a program for voice and speech pathology. She founded the Speech and Hearing Clinic in 1953, which was renamed the Eleanor M. Luse Center for Communication Disorders in 1973. Luse worked with people who had a variety of disorders, including stuttering, deafness, cleft palates and those recovering from laryngectomies. She tested her own theories on patients and found that one particularly helpful technique was to release the tension in the larynx and build breath support for vocalization. In addition to teaching, doing research, and working with patients, Luse also spoke at clubs and schools about the need to recognize and treat speech difficulties. As a result of her awareness programs, speech and hearing services were established at all schools in Vermont. For her efforts in voice rehabilitation, Luse received a Service Award from the American Cancer Society and was elected as a Fellow of the American Speech and Hearing Society. She also received the Gamma Phi Beta Service Award and Carnation Award, and was presented with honorary degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Vermont. Luse retired in 1970, but didn't stop teaching at UVM until 1975. For many years after her retirement, she served as a consultant at the Center. Luse eventually moved to California to be near her sisters and passed away on November 19, 1997.

BA, MA, PhD, Northwestern University

Speech and Voice Pathologist

Gertrude Robinson Mallary (1902-2002) was born August 19, 1902, in Springfield, Massachusetts, and attended Bennett Junior College, in Millbrook, New York. She married DeWitt Mallary September 15, 1923. After their decision to become serious farmers, she took a dairy herd management course at University of Connecticut. With no farming background, Gertrude became a recognized authority on dairy cattle breeding. While she sought good advice and used it, she, in turn, advised many breeders throughout North America as evidenced by her voluminous correspondence. Mrs. Mallary was active in many community, professional, and political organizations. A Republican, she served in the Vermont House of Representatives, 1953-1957, and in the Vermont Senate, 1957-58. Among other activities, she was president of the Vermont Holstein Club, secretary of the New England Holstein Breeders Association, and editor of the New England Holstein Bulletin. Mrs. Mallary was an avid collector of Vermont books and manuscripts. A bibliography of her collection, The Vermont Library of Gertrude Mallary, was published in 1989.

Bennett Junior College, Millbrook, New York University of Connecticut, graduate programs in genetics

Volunteer social worker Holstein cattle breeder Vermont state legislator

Deborah Markowitz graduated from the University of Vermont in 1983 with a B.A. and went on to Georgetown University Law Center where she graduated magna cum laude with her Juris Doctorate degree in 1987. After graduating, she served as a law clerk for Justice Louis Peck of the Vermont Supreme Court from 1987-1988. In 1988, she began practicing law at Langrock, Sperry, and Wool until 1990, when she began work as the founding director of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns Municipal Law Center until 1997. While serving as Director, Markowitz published numerous handbooks on local government and law, and she lectured on issues related to municipal law and ethics in government. In 1998, Deborah Markowitz became Vermont's 37th Secretary of State and Vermont's first woman Secretary of State. Her responsibilities include overseeing Vermont's elections, the State Archives, professional licensing and business registrations, and providing educational assistance to Vermont's local officials. Secretary Markowitz is well known for her efforts to improve Vermont's democracy and promote good citizenship. She has helped schools by providing materials to teachers on Town Meeting day, Vermont's legislative process and age-appropriate information about Vermont's history, culture, and geography. She also has published the "Citizen's Guide to Town Meeting" and the "Moderators Handbook" to help Vermonters understand and be able to participate in their local town meetings. Deborah Markowitz has also improved customer service in the Secretary of State's office, making it easier to start and expand a business in Vermont. She has also been a leader in strengthening laws that ensure the preservation of important government records in the State Archives. During her time as Secretary, she also established the Safe at Home program. This is a program for victims of domestic violence, rape, or stalking. Her office helps keep people from being tracked down through public records systems and the most vulnerable victims can use her office address as their legal address and then mail is forwarded to a confidential location. Secretary Markowitz is an advocate of women in leadership positions. She believes women have the opportunity to be powerful leaders and can make a difference in our local communities, state, nation, and world. Markowitz is the founder of the Women's Leadership Initiative to promote women running for elective office. Deborah Markowitz ran unsuccessfully for Governor in 2010. She served as Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources from 2011 to 2017.

B.A., University of Vermont (1983) J.D, Georgetown University (1987)

Law clerk, Lawyer, Director of Vermont League of Cities and Towns Municipal Law Center, Vermont Secretary of State.

Anna Hunt Marsh left $10,000 in her will to establish the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, later known as the Brattleboro Retreat or Retreat Healthcare in Brattleboro, Vermont. Anna Hunt's father, Jonathan, was one of the first settlers in southeastern Vermont and served as Lieutenant Governor of the state. She married Perley Marsh, a physician, in 1793. They lived in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, across the river from Brattleboro, where Perley Marsh's medical practice was located. He was incredibly successful and was listed as the third wealthiest man in town. Long before Marsh decided to donate her money for the founding of an asylum, she questioned how mentally ill people were treated. Her husband belonged to a council of doctors who wanted to help the mentally ill, but they held the belief that submerging the patient in water for three to four minutes and then resuscitating him would awaken the patient to new life. This treatment often proved to be fatal. Marsh's neighbor was given this treatment along with a massive dose of opium and died as result. Then, while living with relatives in Northfield, Massachusetts, she met the son of a cousin who was mentally ill. He was in and out of the State Lunatic Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts and this reminded Marsh of the need for proper treatment of mental illnesses. Marsh's will was written up four months before her death in 1834, and her request to leave $10,000 to establish a hospital for people suffering from mental illness was very unusual. Only ten asylums for the mentally ill existed in the United States at that time, and treatment methods were often cruel. A month after her October 14, 1834 death, the Vermont Legislature incorporated the Vermont Asylum. It has since been renamed as the Brattleboro Retreat, and, in 2006, it became Retreat Healthcare.

Philanthropist

Caroline Crane Marsh was the second wife of George Perkins Marsh. She was also an advocate for women's rights, a poet and an author. The daughter of Benjamin Crane of Berkley, Massachusetts, Caroline Crane married George Marsh in 1839, five years after the death of his first wife. In 1849, President Taylor named Mr. Marsh Minister to Turkey, so the family moved to Constantinople. Caroline Marsh suffered from poor health (she may have suffered from a stroke), but this did not stop them from traveling extensively. After a brief stint in Greece, the couple returned to Vermont in 1854 and stayed until 1861, when President Abraham Lincoln named Mr. Marsh the American Minister to Italy. Mr. Marsh remained in Italy until his death in 1882. Caroline Marsh shared her ideas with her husband and was able to influence his views on feminism and women's rights. Mr. Marsh has been quoted as saying that we would never know how far women could go in life until we "make women legally and socially the peer of man. Mr. Marsh encouraged his wife in her work as a translator and poet. Caroline Marsh published "Wolfe of the Knoll and Other Poems" in 1860 and "The Life and Letters of George Perkins Marsh" in 1888. She intended the book about her husband to be a two-volume set, but the second volume was never published. She also published a book in Italian about her experiences in Italy and translated from German Johann C. Biernatzki's "The Hallig or the Sheepfold in the Waters." Hiram Powers, the renowned sculptor, had Marsh sit for a bust in June 1862. The marble replica made from the plaster cast of her is in the Fleming Museum of the University of Vermont.

Poet Translator Author

Grace Johnson McGuire was born in Hardwick, Vermont on January 8, 1919. She attended St. Michael's High School in Montpelier and graduated as valedictorian in 1936. McGuire then went on to Trinity College in Burlington, VT and graduated from Portia Law school in Boston, MA in 1940. Portia was the first law school in America to admit women with or without a college degree. At age 22, she became the twentieth woman admitted to the Vermont Bar. After passing the bar, McGuire worked on the legal staff at National Life of Vermont. In 1965, McGuire was appointed as a Montpelier Municipal Judge by Governor Phil Hoff. In 1967, the municipal courts were abolished and Grace McGuire returned to practicing law in Montpelier. Beside practicing law, McGuire was also active in the community. She served on the Board of Directors for St. Joseph's Children's Home in Burlington for eight years, was on the Board of Directors of Vermont Catholic Charities for seventeen years, was a founder and director of the Elmhill Group Home, and served as president of the Vermont Cancer Society.

Trinity College, Burlington Portia Law School, Boston (1940)

Lawyer Judge

Lenore Whitman McNeer was Director of Vermont College's Mental Health Program and Department of Human Services. She was also a champion of women's rights locally and nationally, chairing the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women from 1970-1972 and serving as the Vermont delegate to the International Women's Year Conference in Houston, Texas. McNeer was raised in West Virginia and was the first person in her immediate family to attend college. She graduated from Berea College in Kentucky with a BA in Sociology in 1944 and continued her education at the University of Chicago where she obtained a Master's degree in 1951. Her husband, Mason McNeer, got a job teaching at Norwich University, so the couple and their two sons moved to Montpelier, Vermont. Lenore McNeer was employed as a psychiatric social worker for the Department of Mental Health before she joined the staff of Vermont College as an Assistant Professor and Director of Community Services. She later became Director of Vermont College's Mental Health Program and the Department of Human Services. McNeer served as a leader in the human services field and helped set the standards and the curriculum for human service programs on the baccalaureate level. She wrote numerous publications on a variety of topics ranging from depression to educational conditions seen around the world. McNeer continued to educate herself and received her doctorate in Human Services and Mental Health from the University of Massachusetts in 1975. McNeer's other passion in life was women's rights. She chaired the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women from 1970-1972 and was a supporter of the National Equal Rights Amendment. She was chosen to chair the planning committee for the International Women's Year celebration in 1976 and planned a Vermont Women's Town Meeting for 1977. At that Town Meeting, she was elected as a delegate to the Houston, Texas, International Women's Year Conference and served as a floor manager there. McNeer became involved in the National Organization of Human Services Education and organized the New England Chapter of the national organization. When she died in June 1981, the organization created the Lenore McNeer award, which goes to a recipient "who has made a distinctive contribution to the field of human services as a practitioner or as an educator."

A.B., Berea College (1944) M.A., University of Chicago (1951) Ed.D. in Human Services and Mental Health Administration, University of Massachusetts

Assistant Professor, Director of Community Services, Director of the Mental Health Program and Director of the Department of Human Services at Vermont College Psychiatric social worker for the State Department of Mental Health

In 1972 Donella Meadows was on a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team that produced the global computer model "World 3" which provided the basis for the book she co-authored, "Limits to Growth". She co-authored "Beyond the Limit: Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable Future" with Dennis Meadows and Jorgen Randers a 20 year follow up study to "Limits to Growth". She was a protege of Jay Forrester, inventor of systems dynamics and the principle of magnetic data storage for computers. Donella Meadows was a professor at Dartmouth College in environmental systems, ethics, and journalism for 29 years. She wrote a weekly newspaper column called "The Global Citizen", which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1991. In 1985, she was awarded second place in the Champion-Tuck National competition for outstanding journalism in the field of Business and Economics. In 1981, she founded, with her former husband, Dennis Meadows, the INRIC also known as the Balaton Group. The Balaton Group created and developed avenues of exchange between scientists on both sides of the Iron Curtain at the height of the Cold War. Donella Meadows served as its coordinator for 18 Years. She served on many national and international boards and scientific committees and was recognized for her work by being appointed as a 1991 Pew Scholar, in 1994 as a MacArthur Fellow, and in 1992 received an Honorary Doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In 1997, she founded the Sustainability Institute and the cohousing community, Cobb Hill, located in Hartland, VT, which combines research in global systems with practical methods of sustainable living. -Amory Lovins eulogy for Donella Meadows,in 2001, included this quote- "When asked if we had enough time to prevent catastrophe, she always said that we have exactly enough time - starting now."

PhD, Harvard (1968) Honorary PhD, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (1992)

Scientist Environmental systems analyst Teacher Writer

A summer resident of Vermont, Cornelia Lynde Meigs won the Newbery Medal Award for her book "Invincible Louisa." The author of books for both children and adults, Meigs was also an editor and professor of English at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Meigs was born in Rock Island, Illinois, and spent the majority of her childhood in Keokuk, Iowa, attending both elementary and secondary schools there. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1908. After college, she returned to Iowa where she taught English at St. Katherine's School in Davenport, Iowa. Through her teaching, Meigs recognized the need for children's books written at appropriate reading levels. She began writing herself; her first book, "The Kingdom of the Winding Road", a collection of fairy tales, was published in 1915. Meigs received the Drama League prize in 1916 for her first play, "Steadfast Princess", and won a $2,000 prize from Little, Brown and Co. for "Trade Winds", her most widely known children's book. She won three Newbury Honor Medals for "Windy Hill" (1922), "Clearing Weather" (1928) and "Swift Rivers" (1933). In 1932, Meigs joined the faculty at Bryn Mawr College and taught English there until 1950. She won the Newbery Medal Award in 1934 for "Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women." Meigs purchased a home in Brandon, Vermont, which she named "Green Pastures", in 1936. Over the years, she began to spend more and more time at her Vermont home, alternating between Brandon and Havre de Grace, Maryland. During World War II, she served as a civilian employee for the U.S. War Department, while continuing to write. Her first adult book, "The Violent Men", was published in 1949. In addition to contributing her own work to the "Critical History of Children's Literature," Meigs served as an editor of the survey. Some of her other works include: "The Great Design: Men and Events in the United Nations 1945-1964", "Jane Addams: Pioneer For Social Justice", and "What Makes a College?: A History of Bryn Mawr." She was honored with a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Plano in Texas in 1967. Cornelia Meigs died on September 10, 1973 in Havre De Grace, Maryland.

BA, Bryn Mawr College (1908)

Teacher Professor Author

Hinda Schreiber Miller is a Vermont State Senator and co-founder of Jogbra, Inc., the original maker of the "jogbra" women's sports garment. She also serves as President of DeForest Concepts, "a consulting firm specializing in small business and the promotion of women entrepreneurs." Miller was born on April 18, 1950 in Montreal, Quebec. She became a United States citizen in 2001. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Parson's School of Design in New York, NY and her Masters of Fine Arts from New York University. She has since received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Trinity College. After college, Miller worked as an assistant for the Brooklyn Academy of Music and taught costume design at the University of South Carolina. Miller came to Burlington, VT in the summer of 1977 to work at the University of Vermont's Lake Champlain Shakespeare Festival. She met her future business partner, Lisa Lindahl, at the Royall Tyler Theater. Together they identified the need for an undergarment that would support a woman's breasts while running and eventually invented the first women's sports bra by sewing two jockstraps together. The company quickly grew and the jogbra became a part of American culture. One of the early designs is in the permanent costume collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and another is in the Smithsonian. Miller was President of Jogbra, Inc. (which was renamed JBI, Inc. in 1984) from 1977 until 1990, when the company was purchased by Playtex Apparel, Inc. The following year, Playtex Apparel was sold to the Sara Lee Corporation. Throughout these transitions, Miller continued to serve as President and became CEO of the Champion Jogbra division of Sara Lee in 1994. From January 1996 to December 1997, Miller served as Vice President of Communications for the same division. Miller left the company in 1997 to pursue other interests, including teaching at the University of Vermont's Business School and politics. Miller began her Senate career in 2003 and represented the people of Chittenden County until 2013. As a member of the Senate, she served on the following committees: Economic Development, Appropriations, Housing and General Affairs, and Education. She was Chair of the Council of Higher Education Funding and Co-Chair of the Council of Educational Governance. She actively promoted small business, new housing legislation, and complementary medicine as a part of quality healthcare. Miller ran for Mayor of Burlington in 2006, but was defeated by Bob Kiss. Miller is the Former Chair of the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce, served on the Board of Directors of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and is a Trustee Emeritus of Champlain College. She served on the Board of Directors for the New England Culinary Institute and the Vermont Youth Orchestra. She is also a founding member of the Childcare Fund of Vermont and was the Burlington Airport Commissioner. She is married to Dr. Joel Miller and they have one son and one daughter. Miller is also an experienced yoga instructor.

BFA, Parson's School of Design (1972) MFA in Theater Design, New York University (1976)

Costume designer for the University of Vermont's Shakespeare Festival Costume design teacher at the University of South Carolina President of Jogbra, Inc. Politician

Doris Mourning Dove Minckler was a widely respected elder, visionary, and medicinal person of the Abenaki nation. Through the teachings of her grandmother, she embraced the Abenaki way of life, particularly as a healer. She eventually became the grandmother to the community for more than twenty years. Her home was always filled with Abenaki people and members of the Vermont community. She opened her doors to anyone that needed help sorting out their life, their health, or if they just needed a caring person willing to listen. Minckler did consulting work with the State of Vermont. The anthropological community used her skills in determining whether objects were burial goods and how they should be treated. Minckler is remembered locally by the Abenaki people every year in a small ceremony coordinated by her family. She protected and preserved Abenaki ways of life during a crucial period in the history for the Abenaki peoples of Vermont.

Consultant for the State of Vermont Nursing home worker Spiritual Medicine/Laying of Hands

Gretchen Morse served as Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Human Services under Governor Madeleine Kunin. Morse was born in Hyannis, Massachusetts and graduated from Colby Junior College in 1963. She gained administrative experience with the Polaroid Corp in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Museum of Science in Boston. After moving to Vermont in 1971, she received her B.S. in Human Development from the University of Vermont (1975). She served four terms in the Vermont State Legislature as a Representative from 1977-1985. Morse was Chair of the Health and Welfare Committee (1983-1985) and Chair of the Education Committee (1981-1983). In 1985, she was appointed the Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Human Services by Governor Madeleine Kunin. This agency oversees mental health, social welfare, public health, corrections, and rehabilitation services. Morse was the only Cabinet secretary to remain on board throughout all of Governor Kunin's three term administration. In 1991, she became the Executive Director of the United Way of Chittenden County. Morse has been a member of the Vermont Commission on Women, the Governor's Commission on Children and Youth, the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Advisory Group and the National Council of State Human Services Administrators. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Vermont Health Foundation, the Wake Robin Board of Directors and is a member of the Burlington Rotary Club. Morse received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Vermont College of Education and Social Services in 1983.

AA, Colby Junior College (1963) BS, University of Vermont (1975)

Politician Executive

Mariafranca Morselli was born in Milan, Italy. She received a PhD in Biology and Natural Resources in 1946 from a university in Italy and married her husband, Mario Morselli. They moved to the United States in 1956 where Morselli worked as a researcher at the Bronx Botanical Garden. In 1964, they moved to Vermont, where Morselli joined the maple research team and taught at the University of Vermont. She eventually became the Director of the Maple Research Center and Emerita Professor of Botany at UVM. In 1991 she became the first woman inducted into the International Maple Hall of Fame. She was also named "Vermont Maple Person of the Year" in 1987. Morselli was an active advocate for education and gender equity throughout her life. She participated in many organizations that work for social equality and justice. She found a place in Vermonters' hearts, not only because of her hard work in many fields and her love for maples and the maple industry, but also because of her personality. In 1985, she was voted "Vermont's Most Exciting Woman." Two awards are now given by UVM in Morselli's name. One is given to a student who excels in Italian Studies. The other is given to a woman majoring in a scientific discipline who actively contributes to campus awareness surrounding women's issues.

PhD, University of Milan (1946)

Maple Researcher Professor

Vermont portrait artist Ruth G. Mould was born in Morrisville, Vermont on May 22, 1894. She was a graduate of local schools, Peoples Academy and Johnson Normal School, which prepared her for an early career as a teacher in the Cadys Falls district school house, teaching Grades 1 - 8. The visual arts, however, commanded her interest as a young woman, and an uncle sponsored her further studies at the Institute of Art in St. Paul, Minnesota, from which she graduated with honors. From there, she went on to study at the Art Students League in New York City, before she married Willis Mould in 1919, and returned to Vermont. Throughout her married life and beyond, whether she was teaching art students at Johnson Normal School, tutoring private art students, and while she was raising her son, Channing, Ruth Mould's husband made sure she had her own private art studio wherever his work as a mining engineer took his family. They lived in Vermont in Morristown, Monkton, Johnson, Williamstown and Barre, and in New York State in Keysville. Mould was one of two artists whose work represented the State of Vermont at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. However, she was best known for her portraits, including a posthumous portrait of Edna Beard, first female member of both the Vermont House and Senate, which hangs in the State House, and portraits of three Vermont Chief Justices in the Vermont Supreme Court Building. A selection of Mould's work is permanently installed in the lobby at the Dibden Center for the Arts at Johnson State College, and other works are represented in the permanent collections of the Fleming Museum, The Vermont Historical Society, and the Bennington Museum. The Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville represents Mould's estate with works for sale. In addition to some book illustration, Mould also wrote a book on Refinishing and Decorating Furniture (1953.) She was a member of the Northern Vermont Artist Association and an honorary lifetime member of the Art Students League in New York. Ruth Mould died on February 13, 1979.

People's Academy, Morristown Johnson Normal School "Normal Art Course" at the Art Institute of St. Paul, Minnesota Advanced Studies at the Art Students League, NYC

Artist

Mould, Ruth Greene (1894-1979)

Blanche Honegger Moyse began her study of the violin at the age of eight, and shortly after, became a student of Adolf Busch. At sixteen, she earned first prize in violin at the Geneva Conservatory and made her debut with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. She then moved to Paris and continued her musical education and served on the faculty of Neuchatel Conservatory of Music in her native country. At the end of WWII, Moyse left France for a music school in South America, but this effort failed when the school did not materialize. In 1949, via an invitation of Adolf and Hermann Busch and Rudolf Serkin, she moved to Vermont. At this time, Moyse established the music department for Marlboro College and served as its chairperson for the next 25 years. In response to what Moyse felt was the "musical wasteland that typified the long winters of southern Vermont", she established the Brattleboro Music Center in 1951 "to promote the love and understanding of good music and to make it a vital part of the community." Blanche Moyse retired as a violinist in 1966 due to a bow-arm ailment, but dedicated the majority of her time to the study and performance of the choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1969 Moyse and her husband Louis founded the New England Bach Festival. This Festival is an annual celebration of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. This festival offers music lovers the opportunity to hear innovative, historically informed and professional performances of Bach's music. In 1999 the Vermont Legislature issued a proclamation calling her work "as a performer, music festival director, and most enduring, as a devoted teacher, . . . truly unsurpassed."

Music Director, Violinist, Faculty of Neuchatel Conservatory Chair, Music Department, Marlboro College

Janet Munt was a trained clinical social worker. After graduating from Sweet Briar College in 1944, she joined the Women's Army Corps and served for two years, working mostly as a psychiatric social worker. Then, after further schooling, she became a clinical social worker in private psychotherapy practice. Munt later served six years in the Vermont Senate as a Democrat representing Chittenden County from 1998 to 2004. She served as vice-chair of the Committee on Health and Welfare for much of this time. She advocated for services to help low-income families, especially women and children. She was in favor of a state managed single-payer health care program for Vermont. She retired from politics at the age of 81.

BA, Sweet Briar College (1944) MS, Columbia (1948)

Clinical Social Worker Politician

Clarina Howard Nichols was the first woman to advocate for women's rights in Vermont. The eldest daughter of Birsha Smith and Chapin Howard, she grew up in West Townshend and married Justin Carpenter of Guilford in 1830. Migrating to western New York and later to New York City, the Carpenters had three children. Their marriage ended after Justin spent much of Clarina's inheritance and failed to provide adequate support for the family. She separated from him and eventually secured a divorce. In 1843 Clarina married George W. Nichols, editor of the Windham County Democrat in Brattleboro, with whom she had one more child. As George's health deteriorated, she assumed the editorship of the Democrat and began her career as a political journalist and advocate for social reform. A lively and scarcastic writer who provided advice about domestic and partisan affairs, Nichols was a keen supporter of temperance and a friend of antislavery. Her editorials on behalf of married women's property rights were instrumental in passage of a significant reform act in 1847, allowing married women to write wills and protecting their inherited real estate from their husband's debts. In 1852, she organized a petition to the Vermont Legislature seeking women's right to vote in school meetings. Despite her stellar presentation before the Vermont Legislature, the first woman to do so, Vermont did not allow women to vote in school meetings until 1880. Nichols participated in numerous national conventions on women's rights in the Northeast and lectured widely on temperance and women's issues. In 1854, Nichols moved her family to Kansas, where she supported the movement to secure free soil in the territory and became active as an abolitionist. After her husband died, she worked tirelessly for women's rights in Kansas. She helped ensure that married women's property and custody rights were included in the Kansas constitution and wrote a clause guaranteeing equality for women in school affairs, which allowed women to vote in school elections. Known as a "mother of Kansas" for her matronly presentation and stature, she continued to advocate for full suffrage and equal treatment of husbands and wives in family law. During the Civil War, she and her daughter worked as government clerks in Washington, D.C., and she became the matron of a home for freed black women and children. After the war, she engaged in a failed campaign to secure universal suffrage rights in Kansas and eventually migrated further west to Potter Valley, California, where one of her sons had pioneered. Nichols continued to write and publish articles advocating for women's full equality and their important role in the nation until her death at age seventy-five.

Journalist

Margaret O'Malley was born in Galway, Ireland, where she received an early education from private tutors and attended Model Schools. In 1868, she came to Manchester, New Hampshire, to work in the American mission. She joined the Sisters of Mercy on December 2, 1868. In Manchester, she received the habit on March 12, 1869, and professed vows on August 19, 1871. In 1872, Sister Mary Stanislaus, formerly known as Margaret O'Malley, was named to the St. Johnsbury Foundation, where she and four other Sisters of Mercy struggled for two years to bring education to the poverty-stricken population in that area. Unfortunately, the parish was unable to support the Sisters, so they departed from St. Johnsbury in 1874, only to be invited that same year to staff St. Mary's, the Cathedral parochial school in Burlington. Bishop Louis de Goesbriand invited Sister Mary Stanislaus and three other Sisters to Burlington, where they took charge of teaching the 400 children in the school. They stayed in the unheated rooms on the top floor of the school. Overcoming disease and fatigue caused by poor living conditions and stressful working conditions, the Sisters managed to set roots in the fertile Champlain Valley. In 1876, St. Patrick's Convent was completed and the Foundation became independent of Manchester on June 5th of that year. Mother Stanislaus was canonically appointed the first Mother Superior on June 5, 1876. She served as Mother Superior of the Vermont Sisters of Mercy for 24 years. During her tenure, she bought 35 acres of land in Burlington, and sold some of it in order to raise funds for the construction of Mt. Saint Mary Academy, a convent and boarding school for girls. She created branch houses in Montpelier (1889), Barre (1900), and White River Junction (1907). Mother Stanislaus oversaw the staffing of St. Mary's School, the Pearl Street House, St. Patrick's Academy and Cathedral Grammar. With Ella Baird, she developed a grading rubric for elementary schools, and expanded the curricula at the elementary and high schools. Mother Stanislaus also began the regular visitation of the sick and the poor and routinely visited the Poor Farm.

Mother Superior Teacher

Molly Ockett, an Abenaki doctor of the Pequawket tribe, was born in Maine's Lower Saco River valley about 1740 and baptized Marie Agathe by French missionaries. Skilled in the traditional herbal medicine skills of her people, she traveled through much of New England and Southern Quebec, treating both Native and non-Native people. Throughout her childhood, Molly Ockett and her family moved constantly to avoid the perils of the French and British colonial wars taking place around them. During 1759, while taking refuge at the St. Francis Mission at Odanak near the St. Lawrence River, Molly reportedly witnessed the death of her parents and many other Abenakis during the famous Roger's Raid(some estimates put the numbers at over 200 people but many scholars use a lower estimate). After this, she moved about along the Missisquoi River, continuing to practice traditional skills with a small group of other surviving Native allies. By 1764, Molly had married a Native hunter named Piel Susup (Peter Joseph). That year, the couple visited the rebuilt mission at Odanak to have their marriage consecrated and their new daughter baptised. By 1772, Piel had died and records show Molly living with a Pequawket Abenaki named Sabattis near Fryeburg, Maine. In time, she quit that stormy relationship, but always maintained her link with Fryeburg and numerous other Maine towns. Andover, Rumford, Canton, Poland, Minot, Trap Corner, Paris Hill, Bethel, North Conway, Fryeburg, and Baldwin all proudly claim that Molly Ockett was a resident of their town. She had a particularly strong connection with Bethel, where she sometimes attended and spoke at Methodist church services. Some claim that she converted from Catholicism to Methodism. Whether or not that is true, she is quoted as having said Methodists were "drefful clever folks." Molly Ockett was known to be a fine hunter. When she would make a large kill, she would gather whoever was nearby to help her drag the kill from the woods. Then she would share the meat with them. She was also known for her beautiful birch bark baskets and other small crafts that she sold or traded to settlers. But, most of all, she was known as a fine traditional healer, trusted by both Natives and newcomers. As the only doctor available to many of these early settlers, she played an important role in their lives. In the 1770s, she treated a shady character named Henry Tufts who stumbled into her camp near Bethel seeking treatment for a serious knife wound. After she healed him, he remained in her company for three years, determined to become her apprentice in order to become an itinerant doctor. In the winter of 1810, she saved the life of infant Hannibal Hamlin in Paris, Maine and predicted that he would become a famous man. He grew up to be Abraham Lincoln's first Vice President. In 1781, during the American Revolution, she saved the life of Col. Clark by warning him of a raid. When Clark tried to reward her, she refused. Years later, after an especially difficult winter, she accepted his offer to stay with his family in Boston, where she learned about European medicine. Missing the woods and her independence, she did not stay there long. After leaving Boston, Molly resumed her itinerant life in Maine and Vermont, walking long distances and setting up camp near one town or another. Refusing to leave her ancient homelands, she continued to practice the ways of her people until she died in 1816, despite the many cultural changes that were taking place around her. She was buried in the town cemetery of Andover, where she died. Some time later, a head stone was placed on her grave. It reads, "MOLLOCKET Baptized Mary Agatha, died in the Christian Faith, August 2, A.D., 1816. The Last of the Pequakets."

Healer

Lilian Herrick Marble was the twelfth and youngest child of Elizabeth Woodard and Liberty Bates Marble, a successful mill owner in Woodstock. Lilian graduated from Woodstock High School, studied music in Boston, and became an accomplished pianist. She taught music before her marriage to clothing manufacturer Louis Herman Olzendam, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the turn of the century, the couple moved to New York City, where Louis worked in the textile business, and the couple raised two children, Roderic M. and Therese E. Olzendam. In the mid-1910s Lilian and her daughter Therese became involved in the woman suffrage movement. Therese, who had learned typesetting and press operation in Woodstock, became circulation manager at The Suffragist, the newspaper of the National Woman’s Party in Washington, D.C. Returning to Woodstock in mid-1917, Lilian became an officer of the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association (VESA) and president of the Woodstock Suffrage Club in 1918. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) hired her as an organizer for Vermont, and she attended the association’s conference in St. Louis in 1919 to report on the state’s progress. The same year VESA leaders appointed Olzendam to lead the campaign to ratify the 19th Amendment. She successfully gathered petitions from women and enough pledges from Vermont legislators to support suffrage and a special legislative session to ratify the amendment, which would make Vermont the “Perfect 36” or final state needed for ratification. In the process, she took a historic auto tour with Marion Stone Pelley to visit every newspaper editor and as many politicians as she could locate to sign a petition urging Governor Percival W. Clement to call legislators into session. When he continued to resist, Olzendam organized a mass protest of suffragists at the State House to speak with him. Traveling through snow and sleet, women in the “March of 400,” otherwise known as the “Green Mountain Girls,” participated in the state’s largest political protest to date. Despite this effort and the intervention of national Republican leaders, Clement refused, claiming that ratification required a statewide referendum as per the Vermont Constitution. After Tennessee became the final ratifying state and women had voted in the 1920 election, Vermont legislators finally approved the amendment in 1921. In September 1920, Olzendam helped organize the League of Women Voters of Vermont and was elected its first chair. That fall she also campaigned for the Republican Party, attended the state convention, and was elected a Presidential elector. In the 1921 legislative session, she advanced women’s reforms and wrote a special report for newly elected Governor James Hartness on conditions for women at Windsor Prison, urging their removal from the institution. Noted for her prominence as a woman in Vermont politics, Olzendam retreated from public life in the summer of 1921. During this period, Olzendam was separated from her husband and lived in Woodstock and Burlington. In 1924, she wrote a musical score for “Song of Vermont,” published in Boston with lyrics originally written as a poem by Justice Wendell Phillips Stafford. During the 1930s, Olzendam spent winters in New York City, where she boarded at the American Woman’s Club. She returned to Woodstock regularly to visit her large family and purchased her own residence in the 1940s. Her daughter, Therese, worked for the advertising firm, J. Walter Thompson Co., in New York City until 1951, and her son, Roderic, a writer in his youth, settled in Tacoma, Washington, where Lilian died at the age of 89 in 1958.

Musician, Suffragist

Grace Stuart Orcutt graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy in 1898. She taught secondary school in the St. Johnsbury area throughout her life. She was also a typesetter and proofreader. She married Elbert Orcutt in 1901. After this, she began to write and publish poetry that often incorporated Vermont themes. In 1962, Grace Orcutt passed away. Her husband, Elbert Orcutt, who served on the St. Johnsbury Academy Board of Trustees from 1961-1969, dedicated the Grace Stuart Orcutt Library at the St. Johnsbury Academy to his late wife.

St Johnsbury Academy (1898)

Teacher Poet

Anne Louise Simonds, later known as Mrs. George Orvis, was the first female village president of Manchester, Vermont. She was also a member of the Republican National Committee in 1924, which was the first year women were given equal representation in the National Committee. During this year, she and Mrs. Barclay Warburton of Philadelphia took charge of the Elephant Shop at the Roosevelt, a center of election information. In 1929, she left the Republican National Committee to be free to fight prohibition. She joined fifty women, representing 17 states, in Chicago to form the Woman's Organization for National Prohibition Reform. The purpose of this organization was to enlist five million women to fight Prohibition and to favor Temperance. Orvis also sat with eleven men on the first board of trustees of the Southern Vermont Arts Center. She was the proprietor of the Equinox House, which lent its pavilion in 1924 to Francis Dixon and Frank V. Vanderhoof. Later, these two artists would form the group that has come to be called the "Southern Vermont Artists." In the 40's, the Board, comprised of twelve prominent residents and business owners, formed the Southern Vermont Artists, Inc. to insure the longevity of the budding art organization. Working with young Peggy Beckwith, Orvis constructed a personal landing strip for the Equinox Hotel. Ingeniously, she had "Manchester VT" painted on the roof of the hotel with a large arrow pointing to the airfield she and Peggy had selected.

Village President of Manchester, Vermont Proprietor of the Equinox Hotel, Manchester, Vermont

Grace Paley was born in the Bronx in 1922 to Jewish parents Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside. The family spoke Russian, Yiddish, and English. Both her parents and her immigrant neighborhood had vast influences on her written works and political activism. She began her studies at Hunter College, and later attended New York University. However, she never received degrees. Her first collection of short stories was published in 1959 and was called "The Little Disturbances of Man." The narrations detailed stories of ordinary New York citizens. She published two more volumes of short stories called "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute" (1974) and "Later the Same Day" (1985). "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute" was very successful and was adapted into a film in 1984. Other works of short fiction and poetry include "Long Walks and Intimate Talks" (1991) and "New and Collected Poems '(1992). Her most recent work, "The Collected Stories", was published in 1994. Paley received many awards and honors as a result of her works, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction, the National Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Short Story writing, and she was elected to the National Academy of Arts and Letters in 1980. In 1989, Mario Cuomo, New York State Governor at the time, named her the first official New York State writer. Her "Collected Stories", published in 1994, was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Paley served as the Vermont State Poet Laureate from March 5, 2003 until July 25, 2007. According to the Vermont Arts Council, this position honors works of "excellence by poets who have a long association with Vermont." Governor Jim Douglas offered this praise of Paley in 2003: "Artists are known for challenging convention...Great artists like Grace Paley do that and more." Paley's writing led her into a career in education beginning in the 1960s. She taught courses at Columbia and Syracuse Universities, and later became a faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College. In addition, she taught at City College of New York. One of her other great contributions was her role as a political activist (self-described as a "somewhat combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist"). She was a dedicated member of the War Resisters League and, therefore, strongly opposed to the Vietnam War. She was also a member of the peace mission to Hanoi to negotiate the release of prisoners of war in 1969. Women's issues were also very important to Paley. "...people will sometimes say, "Why don't you write more politics?" and I have to explain to them that writing the lives of women is politics." Paley was a devoted representative of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, which has been in existence since 1915. "WILPF works to achieve through peaceful means world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, an end to all forms of violence, and to establish those political, social, and psychological conditions which can assure peace, freedom, and justice for all." In 1974, Paley attended the World Peace Conference in Moscow. A decade later, she traveled to Nicaragua and El Salvador to demonstrate her opposition to U.S. government-imposed policies for these nations. December 1978 was another important time in her work as a political activist, as she was one of "The White House Eleven" who were arrested after unrolling an anti-nuclear banner over the White House lawn. Her most recent protests included those over the Iraq War. Paley married a film cameraman in 1942 by the name of Jess Paley, after her year at Hunter College. However, they divorced and she remarried Robert Nichols, a landscape architect and author, in 1972. She had two children with her first husband; a son and a daughter, and three grandchildren. She moved to Thetford, Vermont, where she lived the rest of her life. She died in her home on August 22, 2007.

Some studies at Hunter College and New York University

Writer Poet Political Activist Professor

Annette Watson Parmelee was an early twentieth-century suffragist. Parmelee was born in Washington, Vermont in 1865 and moved to Enosburg after marrying Edward Jones Parmelee, a lawyer. Parmelee had gotten involved in the suffrage movement through the temperance movement. She became a member of the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association in 1907 and was nicknamed the "Suffragette Hornet" because of her "noisy, persistent agitation of the cause of women's suffrage." She lobbied before the Vermont Legislature and her speeches convinced many members of the Vermont Legislature that women deserved the right to vote. One of her more notable speeches was given on October 26, 1910 when she addressed the House committee considering the women's suffrage question. She insisted that she was not asking for universal suffrage, but simply for the right of taxpaying women to have a say in how their money was spent. Thanks in part to her work, the Legislature passed a law allowing women who paid taxes to vote in municipal elections in 1917. When women were given the right to vote in all elections in 1920, Parmelee joined the League of Women Voters and served as the chair of the research committee.

Suffragist Chair of the research committee of the League of Women Voters

Katherine Womeldorf Paterson was born on October 31, 1932 in Jiangsu Province of China to Southern Presbyterian missionary parents, George and Mary Womeldorf. Her father ran a school for boys in China, so Paterson learned to speak Chinese before English. After war broke out between China and Japan in 1937, the family moved to Shanghai. By the time Paterson was eighteen, she had moved eighteen times. The war forced the family to return to the United States, where they lived in Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia before settling in Winchester, Virginia. She attended King College in Bristol, Tennessee where she majored in English. After graduation, she taught school for one year before going on to graduate school. She spent two years at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia and decided that she wanted to be a missionary. She wanted to go to China, but it was closed to Americans at that time, so she went to Japan. Paterson was a missionary there for four years and did postgraduate work at the Naganuma School of Japanese Language. She planned to stay in Japan for the rest of her life, but then received a scholarship to study Christian Education at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. While there, she met and married John Barstow Paterson, a Presbyterian pastor from Buffalo, NY. For a while, Paterson substitute taught, but then got a position teaching English and Sacred Studies at the Pennington School for Boys near Princeton, NJ. Her son, John Jr. was born in 1964, and daughter Elizabeth Po Li (b. 1962) joined the family from Hong Kong in 1964 as well. David Lord was born in 1966 and Mary Katherine Nah-he-sah-pe-che-a joined the family from an Apache reservation in Arizona shortly after. In 1964, Pateson was asked to write some curriculum materials for the Presbyterian Church and became "hooked on writing." She began writing the fiction that she had loved as a child, and, while doing this, the family moved to Norfolk, Virginia (1977) and finally Barre, Vermont (1986). Paterson has written fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults and also essays for adults on reading and writing books for children. Her most famous novels include: "Bridge to Terabithia," which was made into a motion picture in 2006, "Jacob Have I Loved," "The Great Gilly Hopkins," "The Master Puppeteer," "Flip-Flop Girl," "Come Sing Jimmy Jo," "Of Nightingales that Weep," "Park's Quest," "Preacher's Boy," "The Same Stuff as Stars," "Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom," and "Sign of the Chrysanthemum." Two of her books, "Lyddie," and "Jip: His Story," are set in Vermont. She has been awarded the Newbery Medal, the National Book Award for Children's Literature, the Hans Christian Anderson medal in 1998 and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature in 2006. In 2005, the Burlington Literary Festival was dedicated to her. Because of the Hans Christian Anderson medal, Paterson was given $13,000 to give to a group of her choice. She chose the Read to Live project. In addition to numerous other awards, Paterson has also received multiple honorary degrees from institutions such as: the University of Maryland, Norwich University, St. Michael's College, and Washington and Lee University in Virginia.

King College Presbyterian School of Christian Education Naganuma School of Japanese Language Union Theological Seminary

Teacher Presbyterian Missionary Author

Linda Perham was born on June 11, 1962 to parents, Wayne and Beverly Mclean. Perham graduated from Bellows Falls High School in 1981 and Southern Vermont College with an Associate's Degree in Nursing. Perham is a US Army veteran and Registered Nurse at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Keene, NH, a position she has held for 18 years (1990-present). Perham has held many positions within the American Legion. In 2008, Perham was endorsed by the State of Vermont Legionnaires as their candidate for the office of National Commander. Perham and her father, who passed away on February 12, 2000, also made history by being the first father/daughter State Commanders in the history of the American Legion.

ADN, Southern Vermont College

Nurse Military

Born Rachel Harris on March 2, 1809 in Vernon, Vermont, Rachel Oakes Preston was a founding member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Originally she was a member of the Methodist Church. Methodism was an Anglican revival sect based on the teachings of John Wesley in the 18th century. Called Methodism because of its adherents "methodical" Bible study, the religion became known for regular group meetings and weekly communion, and a feeling of social responsibility. Methodists reached out to help the poor and the sick and brought their religion into prisons and other places overlooked by the Church of England. Methodists were also considered a bit fanatical. Their enthusiastic sermons, preached both inside and outside of meeting rooms, contrasted with the routine litany of Sunday worship in the Anglican Church. It is unknown exactly when Rachel Harris married Amory Oakes. Together they had a daughter, Rachel Delight Oakes, and moved to Verona, New York. Soon after arriving, Amory Oakes died. In 1837, at the age of 28, Rachel and her daughter joined the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Verona. Here she became a convinced Sabbatarian, meaning that she saw Saturday as the true biblical Sabbath (in Genesis, the seventh day on which God rested after creating the world.) To Oakes, then, all non-Sabbatarian sects were routinely breaking the commandment, "Remember the Sabbath and Keep It Holy." The first Seventh Day Baptist church had been founded in Newport, Rhode Island in 1671, but 150 year later, the church was still small and scattered throughout New England. In 1843 Oakes and her daughter moved again to Washington, New Hampshire where Rachel Delight Oakes had found work as a schoolteacher. In Washington, they attended a "Christian Brethren" church of Millerites. Millerites were followers of a Baptist preacher called William Miller who had predicted in 1833 that the second coming of Jesus Christ would occur sometime in 1843. Miller based his prophecy on the book of Daniel, verse 8:14; "Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then the sanctuary be cleansed." He supposed the "cleansing" of the sanctuary referred to Christ's Second Coming, and assumed "day" meant a full 365-day year, not 24 hours. Miller also believed that the 2,300-year period began in 457 B.C.E. And so, the second coming was to occur in 1843. Specifically, between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. In 1834 Miller published his theory, and Millerism became wildly popular. Between 50,000 and 100,000 people joined the movement. The date was refined even further by another preacher and the Second Coming was set for October 22, 1844. When Christ did not appear on the specified day or within the designated period, October 22, 1844 became known as "The Great Disappointment." After this, many Millerites abandoned the movement, but those who remained were now termed Adventists. They searched for errors in the prophecy or wrongdoing on their part that might have displeased God, causing the Second Advent to be postponed. Fortuitously, Rachel Oakes was in the right place at exactly the right time. In the winter of 1844 a traveling Methodist and Adventist minister named Frederick Wheeler was conducting a Communion Service at Rachel Oakes' church in Washington, New Hampshire. After the service Oakes confronted Wheeler, telling him that in order to receive communion one must agree to obey all Ten Commandments. But, by keeping Sunday as the Sabbath (not Saturday), Wheeler and everyone he preached to were disobeying God's Commandments. Oakes' reasoning was so sound that Wheeler left town seriously considering the argument. Within weeks, he kept his first Saturday Sabbath and began preaching its truth throughout his New England circuit. Meanwhile, Oakes had already convinced many of her local congregation, who formed a small group of Sabbatarian Adventists. But Oakes soon remarried, to Nathan T. Preston, and left the Washington area. She only officially joined the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, as it officially became known, at the very end of her life. Her early conversion of a small but influential and dedicated group lead the way for the remaining Millerites to adopt Adventism and become, eventually, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Today the Seventh-Day Adventist Church counts over 15 million people as members and supports missions in over 200 countries.

Lucy Terry Prince was a former enslaved person turned unofficial lawyer and poet. Born in Africa (some sources use 1724 as her birth date and others use 1732), she was kidnapped and forced into slavery in Rhode Island. She was sold to Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield, Massachusetts at the age of four and was baptized during the Great Awakening. At the age of twenty, she became an official member of the church. In 1746, five people died during an Abenaki raid on Deerfield. Prince became one of America's first African American poets when she composed a poem about the raid, "Bar's Fight," a thirty-line ballad of rhyming couplets. The poem was transmitted orally for more than 100 years and first appeared in print in 1855. Abijiah Prince, a freed slave, bought Lucy's freedom and married her in 1756. She had her first child the following year and by 1769 they had five others. During the 1760's, the Prince family moved to Guilford, Vermont. Prince was well known for her speaking abilities. She used this ability several times to defend her family's rights and property. In 1785, a neighboring white family threatened the Princes, so Lucy appealed to the Governor for protection. His Council ordered Guilford's selectmen to defend them. Prince also tried unsuccessfully to get one of her sons admitted to Williams College in Massachusetts, skillfully citing scripture and law "in an earnest and eloquent speech of three hours" to the Board of Trustees. In 1785, Colonel Eli Bronson attempted to steal land that was owned by the Princes. The case eventually made it to the Vermont Supreme Court and Prince argued against two of the leading lawyers in the state, one of whom became Chief Justice of Vermont. Prince won the case and the presiding justice of the court, Samuel Chase, said that her argument was better than he had heard from any Vermont lawyer. When her husband died in 1794, Prince left Guilford and moved to Sunderland, Vermont. She died at her home in Sunderland in 1821.

Poet Lawyer Orator

Almira Greene "Mother" Prindle was an Orthodox Quaker who advocated for homeless women and children. Prindle was born to a Quaker couple in Starksboro, Vermont, was a schoolteacher prior to marriage, and was influenced by Quaker prophet, Joseph Hoag. She gave many speeches on the suffering of the homeless, specifically women and young boys, and this earned her the nickname "Mother Prindle." She married Cyrus Prindle, a botanist and conscientious objector on February 25, 1863, the year after she had influenced and aided him in becoming a Quaker. In 1872 they separated, because Almira Prindle wished to engage in evangelistic work. She wanted her husband to join her, but he refused. They formally divorced on October 16, 1877 and Cyrus then assumed the spelling of "Pringle," claiming that he was returning to the original Scottish form of the name. He went on to become a world-famous botanist. After her divorce, Prindle left Vermont to work in Florence Crittenton Homes throughout the Eastern United States. Her achievements as a social worker are largely unknown in Vermont, but she did forty years of mission work in Buffalo, Chicago, New York City, Boston, Columbus, Minneapolis, and Little Rock. Prindle founded the Florence Crittenton home in Newark, Ohio and was a paid employee of Crittenton Homes.

Teacher Missionary

Grace Hall Pugh, became interested in flying in 1931 after her stepfather, Arthur Ashley, became manager of the Burlington Airport. The next year, she took out a student permit to fly, and on March 13, 1938, she became the first licensed female pilot in Vermont. In order to get her license, issued at that time by the Department of Motor Vehicles, she completed ten hours of dual training and fifty hours of solo time. She named her own plane, "The Mouse." While serving as office manager at the airport, she became a ground school instructor for an aviation school with bases in Burlington, Swanton, and Plattsburgh, New York. This transition to teaching flight was a natural step, for she had worked as a teacher before becoming a pilot. In 1934, Grace Hall married Harold Pugh, who had just become the new manager of the Burlington Airport. He soon turned over a large class of aviation students to her, due to her experience and expertise in teaching. Soon after, Harold Pugh established the Fli-Rite School of Aviation, which grew greatly prior to WWII, increasing to 120 students in 1939. Pugh was one of the primary teachers in this school. After Grace Pugh died in 1996, photographer Shirley Chevalier named her aerial photography company "Fli-Rite" in honor of the successful business that Grace and Harold Pugh ran in the early 20th century.

Pilot Teacher Ground School instructor

Born to Charles and Rose Quimby of West Stewartstown, New Hampshire, Hortense Quimby grew up spending the summers at her father's growing camp complex on the shores of Little Leach Pond (now called Forest Lake) in the unincorporated town of Averill, Vermont. After obtaining the property in 1894, Charles Quimby had a vision for a "Maine Style" hunting and fishing retreat for well-to-do gentlemen. He spent much of the early years stocking various types of game fish throughout the area lakes and ponds as well as developing primitive tent platforms and cabins for the clientele. Through this early exposure, Hortense became an early advocate for sport fishing in the northern Vermont woods. Hortense Quimby attended the State Normal School at Plymouth, New Hampshire, and graduated with a teaching certificate. She relocated to New Jersey where she lodged with relatives and taught school for about ten years. Her father died unexpectedly in late 1919 and Hortense moved back to the Northcountry to take over management of her family's Cold Spring Camp. However, her vision for the camp went beyond a rustic hunting and fishing retreat on five leased acres. She wanted a camp that would be noted throughout the U.S. as a family fun resort with fishing, sports, games, and camaraderie for all ages. In the winter of 1927 she served as a hostess on a Raymond Whitcomb tour of South Africa. The cruise also included stops in numerous islands, African ports, London, Naples, and Paris. She was quoted as crediting this experience as foundational to the development of her own resort. She expanded the original small camp to over 900 privately held acres, installing trails for horseback riding and hiking. She replaced the tents with private cabins and a main lodge and employed many local families in what we would now call a farm-to-table experience. By 1934, the resort hosted over 1,000 guests including Governor George Aiken and his guest Gov. Alfred Landon, the 1936 Republican presidential nominee, and actor Henry Fonda, and his children Peter and Jane. One of Hortense's often-quoted mottos was, "Roughing it with comfort." Hortense Quimby was also a fish culturist, and was know throughout the state for her lobbying during the legislative session on behalf of measures beneficial to fishing in the state. In 1923 she created the first commercial fish hatchery in Vermont on a tributary of Big Averill Lake, raising Lake Trout, Salmon, and Brook Trout. Later, this fish "station" became a public-private partnership with the State of Vermont. In addition to stocking lakes and ponds, Hortense also lobbied for scientifically based bag limits to make sure fish thrived for future generations of anglers. Hortense Quimby served as an informal ambassador for the State of Vermont, exhibiting at sports shows throughout the United States in the off-season and enticing visitors of all stripes to experience Vermont. Once enrolled in camp, most families returned year-after-year and generation-upon-generation. Never marrying, Hortense Quimby managed and grew the Cold Spring Club from a very small operation into one of Vermont's premier summer resorts on her own. After falling ill in 1965 she sold the club to a group of regular guests who operated the camp as Quimby Country, Inc., named in her honor. Hortense Quimby died in 1967, yet the camp she developed for over half-a-century is still in operation today.

Teaching Certificate, Plymouth State Normal School (1909)

Resort Owner Teacher

Major General Martha Rainville is the first woman to be elected as a state Adjutant General for the United States National Guard. After graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1979, Rainville entered the United States Air Force Officer Basic Military Training Program at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. She served at air force bases in Minnesota, New York, Illinois, and Florida, where she was officer-in-charge of aircraft maintenance. She met her husband Norman in Florida, and they have three children: Jennifer, Nick, and Alex. Rainville joined the 158th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron of the Vermont National Guard in 1988, and assumed command in 1992. In 1994 her team won the Worldwide Air Force Fighter Weapons Meet. She was elected as Adjutant General for the U.S. National Guard by the Vermont Legislature in 1997. As Adjutant General she was the Inspector General and Quartmaster General for the Vermont Army Guard and Air National Guard, overseeing 4,600 members. She also ran the state military department. In 1997, Martha was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont. Under Martha's leadership, the Vermont Air Guard became the first unit in U.S. history to earn an Operational Readiness Inspection rank of "Outstanding." She has also served on the board of directors of the Northwest Medical Center and was the chair of the District Six Environmental Commission. After retiring from the military, Rainville ran unsuccessfully as the Republican Congressional Candidate in 2006.

B.A. in Education from the University of Mississippi (1979) Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from St. Michael's College (1997)

Major General Adjutant General for the U.S. National Guard Assistant Administrator, National Continuity Programs at FEMA

Marion McCune Rice served as an American Red Cross nurse in France for four years during WWI. In 1917, she was awarded the Palmes Academiques Medal by the French government for her service to France during the War. Rice also traveled in the United States in 1917 for the American Red Cross, touring the country talking about the War and the desperate need for bandages overseas. Rice was a talented photographer and documented her war experience with a high quality Kodak camera. The letters she sent home during the War were also saved. Her war experience was the subject of a History Channel documentary titled "Dear Home, Letters from WWI". The American Red Cross highlighted Rice in their 125th Anniversary celebration in Washington, D.C. in 2007. A documentary about her war experience was produced in 1997 by a non-profit community group in Keene, NH. Rice was one of the pioneers in Public Health nursing in the United States. She became Director of Simmon's School of Public Health Nursing in Boston in the late 1920's.

BA, Smith College (1905) RN, Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing (1910)

Nurse Professor Administrator

Linda Richards was born July 27, 1841 to Sanford and Betsy Sinclair Richards. The youngest of three daughters, she was christened Melinda Ann Judson. Her father, a minister, chose to name his daughter after Ann Hasseltine Judson, a pioneering American missionary to Southeast Asia. Judson had died about 15 years earlier, and Mr. Richards hoped his daughter might imitate her namesake, which, in her own way, she did. In later years, Richards embarked on her own sort of mission to that region, organizing hospitals and nursing programs in Hawaii and Japan. Linda Richards is credited with being the first professionally trained American nurse. Richards spent her early life in Potsdam, New York. When she was four years old, her family moved west to the Wisconsin Territory, having bought land that today is the town of Watertown, Wisconsin. But within six weeks of moving, her father, Sanford Richards, died of tuberculosis and Richards' mother, Betsy, moved with her daughters to her father's home in Newbury, Vermont. Eventually, they would buy their own farm in the area. After a few years, Richards' mother also fell sick with tuberculosis and Richards was called upon as a nurse for the first time. She helped take care of her mother through her final illness and was only 13 when she died. At this time, Richards moved back to her grandfather's home where she completed local school. At 15, Richards enrolled at St. Johnsbury Academy for one year of training to become a schoolteacher. After completing her training, she returned to Newbury, where she taught for several years. In 1860, Richards became engaged to a man named George Poole. Before they could be married, Poole left Vermont to fight in the Civil War with the Green Mountain Boys. He returned, wounded, in 1865, and Richards acted as his nurse until his death in 1869. According to her later autobiography, "My desire to become a nurse grew out of what I heard of the need of nurses in the Civil War." After the death of her fiancee, Richards moved to Boston. "I had a fixed purpose to devote my life to the work of caring for the sick and suffering." Richards soon found work at the Boston City Hospital as an assistant nurse in a large ward. "I there learned how little care was given to the sick, how little their groans and restlessness meant to most of the nurses' the majority were thoughtless, careless and often heartless." After just three months, Richards broke down and had to leave the position. But her resolve to become a nurse remained unchanged. Richards made contact with Dr. Susan Dimock, Director of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, who told Richards that the hospital would soon be organizing a nurse training school and encouraged Richards to sign up. In her autobiography, Richards ascribes her later renown to coincidence. "Any distinction which has come to me as the first trained nurse in America arises solely from the fact that I was the first student to enter the newly organized school, and so the first to graduate from it." During her yearlong training, Richards and her fellow student nurses worked from 5:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. and remained on call throughout the night. Every other week, they received one-half day off. There were no textbooks and no entrance or final examinations. "The only bedside or practical instruction we received was from the young women interns, who taught us to read and register temperature, to count the pulse and respiration, and the methods of performing the various duties as they were assigned." In some cases, nurses were deliberately kept in the dark. "Great care was taken that we should not know the names of the medicines given. All bottles were numbered, not labeled: student nurses were a novelty then, and had frequent proofs that they were not highly thought of," Richards later recalled. After graduating, Richards took a job as a night superintendent at the Bellevue Hospital Training School in New York City. "Many was the time I went into the wards at 7:30 in the evening and did not sit down until 8:30 the next morning.” While there, Richards began keeping written records of her patients. Before this, night nurses were expected to remember important details to relay orally to the day nurses and doctors when they arrived each morning. Richards’ practice of keeping individualized charts became the first ever written system for nurses. Eventually, it was even adopted by the famous Nightingale System. In 1877, Richards traveled to England for seven months, where she was able to observe modern, organized hospitals and training programs. She was even able to meet Florence Nightingale herself, who was by then 57 years old. After this meeting, Nightingale reported to a colleague, "I have seen her, and have seldom seen anyone who struck me as so admirable. I think we have as much to learn from her as she from us." After returning to America, Richards established a nurse training school at the Boston College Hospital. In 1886, she traveled to Hawaii and then Japan where she continued organizing and establishing nursing schools. She returned from the Far East in 1890, but continued her work. She went on to establish training programs and schools in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Michigan. In 1911, at the age of 70, Richards retired. In 1923, she had a serious stroke and spent the rest of her life where she had first trained - the New England Hospital for Women and Children. She died there, April 16, 1930.

St. Johnsbury Academy (1856) New England Hospital for Women & Children's General Training School for Nurses (1873)

Nurse Teacher Administrator Missionary

Mary French Rockefeller is the granddaughter of Frederick Billings, a lawyer and president of the Northern Pacific Railroad (1879-1881) who was involved in the earliest efforts to create Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks. Mary grew up on the family estate in Woodstock, Vermont. After attending Vassar College, in 1934, Mary French married Laurence Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil. Following in their grandfathers' footsteps, Mary French Rockefeller and her husband, Laurance Rockefeller, founded the Billings Farm & Museum at the Billings estate. In 1992, Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller donated her family home and surrounding property in Woodstock, Vermont, to the federal government for development as the state's first national park and protecting Mount Tom as well as preserving Woodstock's character. Mary and Laurence Rockefeller's work lives on through the programs they have created. They worked on the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission which contributed to the creation of the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Wilderness Act and the National System of Scenic Rivers. Mrs. Rockefeller was a dedicated supporter of the Young Women's Christian Association and traveled over the world to study the YWCA's activities. She was a trustee of Spelman College for 25 years, a trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the Woodstock (Vermont) Historical Society, and the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation of Plymouth, Vermont. In 1988, she wrote a new introduction to "Grace Coolidge and her Era: the Story of a President's Wife," by Isabel Ross. Mrs. Rockefeller wrote that the book "gives us new insight on those times, and it demonstrates how (Grace Coolidge's) grace, charm and good humor proved a steadying and supportive influence upon a heavily burdened President and upon all those around her."

BA, Vassar (1931)

Philanthropist Preservationist

Mary Rogers killed her husband, Marcus Merritt Rogers with chloroform on August 12, 1902. She was helped by Leon Perham, the son of the owner of the house where she was boarding in Bennington. Her trial moved quickly because she was viewed by the jury and journalists as an "unwomanly monster" and she was sentenced to death by hanging. Immediately after the trial, Rogers gained supporters who opposed her execution. They attempted to get her sentence overturned by the Legislature, and, when that failed, they went to the appeals process. Her case made it to the Vermont Supreme Court, where her appeal was denied. The case went on to the U.S. Supreme Court where it was also denied. Her supporters tried to justify her pardon by arguing that as a woman, she could not be held fully accountable before the law. Since Vermont state law also classified women with lunatics and idiots, who were never hanged, they argued that Rogers should not be hung. Rogers' case was especially noteworthy because only one other woman had been executed in Vermont before her, and Rogers was the last woman in Vermont to be executed in this manner, in 1905.

Sister Janice Ryan was born on a dairy farm in Fairfield, Vermont on September 14, 1936. In 1950, she moved to Burlington, Vermont to attend high school at Mount St. Mary's Academy. During her last year there, she joined the novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy. She went on to receive a B.A. in English from Trinity College of Vermont and a Masters of Education in Special Education from Boston University. Ryan began teaching at Cathedral Elementary and Junior High School in Burlington (1956-1965) and then became the Director of Diagnostic and Pre-School Program for Handicapped Children at Trinity College of Vermont. From there, Ryan became a Professor of Education and then the President of Trinity College (1979-1996). Upon leaving Trinity College, Ryan went to Washington, D.C. where she worked to promote fairness and justice. She served as Director of Justice Education and Interfaith Relations under The Justice Project; the Education Director for U.S. Senator James Jeffords; and Project Director of the Catholic Campaign to Ban Landmines. She was influential in the passage of the Vermont Special Education Law and pushed to have it used as the prototype for Congress in developing the nation's special education law. Ryan was also involved with a group that focused on the death penalty and "The Innocent Protection Act," which motivated states to collect DNA from all incarcerated individuals. Ryan has traveled extensively, has presented at the Salzburg Seminar in Austria and was a member of the visiting team at the University of Novorad, Russia. She toured Croatia and Yugoslavia with Catholic Relief Services, and was an invited participant on Vietnam Veterans of America's trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. Ryan also participated in a Friendship Tour of Moscow, Leningrad, and Latavia and took part in a three-week experimental living program in Cochabamba, Brazil. In 2003, Ryan became the Deputy Commissioner of Corrections for the State of Vermont and has since retired. In this position, she oversaw nine Department of Corrections facilities in Vermont and the Vermonters incarcerated in three other states. Ryan also oversaw twelve field offices for Probation and Parole and the Furlough program. In 2006, she was one of four Vermont natives who have celebrated 50 years as a Sister of Mercy. In their honor, the State of Vermont House of Representatives passed H.C.R. 367. Ryan is currently a part of the Fellows Program and the International Women's Forum Leadership Foundation.

Mount St. Mary's Academy B.A. in English from Trinity College of Vermont (1965) M.A. of Education in Special Education from Boston University

Deputy Commissioner of Corrections for the state of Vermont Teacher at Cathedral Elementary and Junior High School in Burlington (1956-1965) Director of Diagnostic and Pre-School Program for Handicapped Children at Trinity College of Vermont Professor of Education and then President of Trinity College (1979-1996)

Florence Sabin was a medical researcher who achieved many firsts for women. She was the first woman to gain full professorship at Johns Hopkins University (1917), the first woman to be president of the American Association of Anatomists (1924), and the first woman chosen as a lifetime member of the National Academy of Science (1925). Florence Sabin was born in Central City, Colorado, to George K. Sabin, a mining engineer, and Serena Miner Sabin, a school teacher. Both of her parents died during her childhood, so she moved to her grandparents' farm in Saxtons River, Vermont. She attended Vermont Academy and went on to Smith College in 1889, where she majored in zoology. She entered Johns Hopkins University Medical School in 1896 after being encouraged to do so by the college physician. After graduating from the University, Sabin obtained an internship at the hospital and, soon after, completed a fellowship in the Department of Anatomy. In 1901, she published "An Atlas of the Medulla and Midbrain". By 1917, Sabin had become a professor of Histology at John Hopkins and, through her disciplined research, made significant contributions to the histology of the brain and the development of lymphatic systems, as well as to the knowledge of pathology and immunology of tuberculosis. In 1924, she became the first woman president of the American Association of Anatomists and in 1925 became the first woman elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. That same year, she accepted an invitation from Simon Flexner, director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, to become Head of the Department of Cellular Studies. This made her the first woman to be a full member of the Institute. She spent 13 years researching at the Institute and, between the years of 1930 and 1934, completed a biography on her mentor, Franklin P. Mall. Sabin returned to Colorado in 1938 and became an active voice in public health issues, playing a key role in developing legislation for Colorado's public health program following World War II. She became chair of the Health Committee of Colorado's Post-War Planning Committee which investigated health services in the state, drafted a series of health bills, and then campaigned for their passage. Following this, Sabin served as chair of an Interim Board of Health and Hospitals of Denver, and then as Manager of the Denver Department of Health and Charities until 1951. She worked tirelessly to improved Denver's sanitation, enforce health regulations in the food industry, and scan the population for tuberculosis and syphilis. Largely due to her efforts, within two years, Denver's tuberculosis incidence was reduced from 54.7 to 27 per 100,000, and the syphilis frequency from 700 to 60 per 100,000. Sabin received numerous awards for her achievements throughout her lifetime. In 1929, the popular magazine "Pictorial Review" gave her its Annual Achievement Award, and a Good Housekeeping poll in 1931 chose her as one of America's top twelve most eminent women. Upon receiving the Achievement Award in 1929, Sabin was quoted as saying, "I hope my studies may be an encouragement to other women, especially to young women, to devote their lives to the larger interests of the mind. It matters little whether men or women have the more brains; all we women need to do to exert our proper influence is just to use all the brains we have." In 1932, she received Chi Omega sorority's National Achievement Award, Bryn Mawr College's M. Carey Thomas Prize in 1935, and fifteen honorary doctorates. She received the Trudeau Medal of the National Tuberculosis Association in 1945, and in 1951, received the Lasker Foundation's Public Service Award for her public health work in Colorado. Nineteen fifty-one was also the year that the Medical School of the University of Colorado dedicated a new biological sciences building in her honor, and in 1959 the state of Colorado honored her with a statue of her likeness.

BS, Smith College (1893) MS, Johns Hopkins (1900)

Professor Researcher Public Health Official Author

Dolores Sandoval was born in Montreal, Canada, on September 30, 1937 but moved to Gary, Indiana, at age seven. She attended college at Indiana University’s Gary Campus, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Michigan, where she received a B.S. from the School of Architecture and Design in 1960. After graduating, she worked for a national personnel firm in New York City and Los Angeles and as an elementary teacher in Gary, Indiana. In 1966, she returned to Indiana University to continue her education, receiving a masters degree and a PhD in Education by 1970. Dr. Sandoval taught briefly as a reading and language arts consultant at SUNY Buffalo before joining the faculty of the University of Vermont in 1971. Her teaching at UVM specialized in Third World Studies, African Studies and Arts in Education. In 1972, she was appointed Assistant to the President for Human Resources at UVM. She was also a member of both the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women in 1972 and the Governor’s Task on Women in 1974. Additionally, she served on various other regional committees and boards and worked as a consultant on topics related to education and civil rights. In 1988 and 1990, Dr. Sandoval ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont. Sandoval was thought to have been the first African-American to seek federal elective office from Vermont. In 1988, she ran in a four-way primary for the Democratic nomination in which she finished fourth. Paul Poirier won the primary but lost in the general election to Peter Smith. In 1990, she won a three-way race for the Democratic primary. Her opponents in the primary included Peter Diamondstone, who ran again in the general election for the Liberty Union, and write-in candidate, Bernie Sanders, who eventually won the general election as an Independent. Sandoval received 3% of the vote compared with 56% of the vote for Sanders. She retired from UVM in 1999 and moved to Montreal where she taught at McGill University and established the DaCosta-Angelique Institute for societal change and worked towards creating an immigrant museum.

BS, University of Michigan (1960) MA and PhD, Indiana University (1970)

Professor College Administrator

Arwin Fletcher (married names of Arwin F. Bashaw, Arwin F.B. Garellick, and Arwin F. B. G. Sexauer) was a poet and musician. She was born in Richford, Vermont, the daughter of Alson B. and Linnie A. Fletcher. She lived in both Richford and Montpelier, marrying three times, each time after the death of the previous husband. In 1942 she married Charles Bashaw. In 1963 she married Jack Garellick. In 1979, she married Howard Sexauer. In 1975, Arwin F. B. Garellick and her husband Jack were commissioned by the Montpelier Bicentennial Commission, headed by Mrs. Lawrence Leland, to write the Bicentennial heritage song for Montpelier. The song was titled "Forward together - Vermonters Give All" and was played and sung by both professional and amateur groups around the state. In 1963, the Garellick's organized the Music Mission for World Peace, Inc. Using nondenominational songs and hymns, the mission of the organization was to promote peace and understanding through words and music. Music Mission was recognized nationally and placed in the Archival Deposit of the President's Committee and the People-to-People Committee at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Poet Musician Librarian

Lillian Minor Shipley operated a successful hotel, bar, and brothel on the Vermont/Canadian border in the early twentieth century. The daughter of William and Mary Minor, she was born in Stevens Mills, Richford in 1866. As a young woman, she left her family and married A. G. Shipley, a peddler of patent medicines and entertainer with a reputation for horse thieving and grave robbing. The couple traveled widely, staging a medicine show. By the turn of the century, Lillian had become involved in prostitution and managed a brothel in Boston until 1910, when local authorities shut down much of the illegal business in the city. Returning to Vermont, she purchased and restored a three-story hotel straddling the Canadian border in Richford. From 1911 until the end of prohibition in 1933, she operated "Lill's Palace," a bar, hotel, and bordello which benefited from its stategic location on the Canadian-Pacific railroad line between Montreal and the cities of the Northeast. Known as "Queen Lil," she served clients from the local area as well as urban business travelers. To take advantage of the demand for illegal liquor, she piped supplies from Canada under the Missisquoi River and operated her own bottling plant, selling to New England bootleggers. Shipley was known for carrying a pistol and flaunting her hard-earned wealth in a fancy automobile. She largely evaded the law by bribing federal officials, but after an international raid in 1925 she was forced to plead guilty and was fined for violating the Mann Act against trafficking in prostitutes. Shipley retired after the end of prohibition diminished her business. She bought several farms with her earnings, married farmer Levi Fleury, and lived with him and his two children until her death.

Business Owner

Jean Walker Simpson was a philanthropist who established and ran the John Woodruff Simpson Memorial Library in the location of her grandfather's general store, which she often visited as a child and moved into the house next door later in life. She opened the library in 1921 and named it after her father who died the year before. She donated many interesting and odd antiquities that she had acquired in her world travels to the establishment. A nonprofit organization now runs the library and it is sustained by Simpson's endowment. During her years in Craftsbury, she also led the first Girl Scout troop in Craftsbury, served two terms in the Vermont State Legislature, served on the school board, and was an animal rights activist. Simpson grew up in Manhatten, New York and was an only child. Her father was a prominent lawyer whose clients included the Carnegies. Her mother was an art lover who donated collections to the National Gallery in Washington D.C. and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Simpson was taught to speak six languages and to read Greek and Latin by her private tutors. Like her mother, she possessed a love for art and, in addition, traveled worldwide. Friend and famous photographer, Edward Steichen, photographed her and the portrait now belongs to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Simpson promoted Shakespeare through 50 years of performances by the East Hill Players in Craftsbury. She purchased numerous sets and costumes for the occasions. She earned honorary degrees from UVM and Middlebury College for this work. She was the first cousin of Mary Jean Simpson, another influential Craftsbury town member and Jean Walker's next door neighbor.

Honorary Degrees from Middlebury College and UVM

Philanthropist Vermont Legislator

Mary Jean Simpson was born in East Craftsbury, Vermont and attended Craftsbury Academy, Wheaton Seminary in Massachusetts, and St. Johnsbury Academy from which she graduated in 1908. She went on to the University of Vermont, but transferred to Mount Holyoke College, which she left after her sophomore year when she returned to UVM. In 1913 she graduated with a PhD and turned to teaching. From 1913-1916 she taught at People's Academy in Morrisville, was head of the History Department at Montpelier High School from 1916-1918, and became the Principal of People's Academy from 1918-1920. In 1921 she moved to New York City to pursue graduate work at Columbia University. While there, she did some substitute teaching and started a Fresh Air program that arranged for New York City children to visit Craftsbury during the summer. Simpson returned to Craftsbury in 1924 and decided to run for the Vermont State Legislature. She was elected and served on the Fish and Game and Military Committees, but requested a transfer to the Education Committee. She worked to tighten a 1921 billboard law, which made her the first Vermont woman to submit a bill. After her one term, she moved to Washington, D.C. to become Bill Clerk in the Office of the Secretary of the United States Senate, and became the first woman to ever be selected for this position. Simpson came back to Vermont in 1933 and was the head of Women's Work in the Civil Works Administration and was the Executive Director of the professional programs of the Vermont Emergency Relief Administration. In 1935 she directed the Women's and Professional Division of the Vermont Works Progress Administration and the Vermont's Civilian Conservation Corps. She agreed in 1937 to become the third Dean of Women at the University of Vermont. She stayed in that position until 1955 and, while at UVM, she helped set up the school's first infirmary and recruit the woman who started the university's first nursing program. A dormitory at UVM now carries Simpson's name, and she was presented with a Distinguished Service Award in 1961. At graduation every year, UVM presents the Mary Jean Simpson award to a senior woman who best exemplifies some of the former dean's qualities of character, leadership, and scholarship. After retirement, Simpson made her home in East Craftsbury and remained active in state and civic affairs until her death in 1977.

Craftsbury Academy St. Johnsbury Academy Wheaton Seminary Mount Holyoke College

Teacher Principal Vermont state legislature Bill clerk of the United States Senate Dean of Women, UVM

Stella Hackel Sims has spent her life in public service. She was born in Burlington in 1926, and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1945. Graduating from Boston University School of Law with a J.D. cum laude in 1948, she was admitted to the Vermont Bar Association that same year. In 1956, Hackel Sims was elected City Grand Juror (Prosecutor) of Rutland, serving until 1963. She was appointed to the position of Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Employment Security in 1963 and served until 1973. She was also President of the Interstate Conference of Employment Security Agencies from 1971-1972. She began her career in law in 1973 with the firm of Ryan, Smith, and Carbine. Sims was the first woman to be elected to the office of Vermont State Treasurer in 1975. She was also the first woman to run for Governor of Vermont for either party, losing the general election as the Democratic candidate in 1976. Not deterred from public life, she became the City Attorney for Rutland. Soon after, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the position of Director of the Bureau of the Mint, Treasury Department, making her the fourth woman in the U.S. to hold this office. She served as Director of the Mint from 1971-1981. Under her direction, the U.S. Mint introduced the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin in 1979. Known as the "mini-dollar", this coin was minted to reduce printing costs of $1 bills. Stella Hackel Sims retired in 1988, and now lives in Arlington, VA.

University of Vermont (1945) J.D., Boston University School of Law (1948)

Lawyer Commissioner, Vermont Department of Employment Security President, Interstate Conference of Employment Security Agencies Director of the United States Mint

Sims, Stella Hackel (b. 1926)

Clara E. Sipprell is best known for her work as a portrait photographer during the pictorialist movement. She proved to be one of the leading practitioners in the United States of this aesthetic art form, which involved creating photographs with a soft focus, giving them the visage of a painting. She received numerous awards in exhibitions and published works in United States and European magazines. Sipprell often took photographs of prominent people in the arts and government, in addition to the many individuals she encountered in her worldly travels to Yugoslavia, Russia, Italy, Mexico, and Sweden. Some of her most famous subjects were the members of Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theatre, King Gustav of Sweden, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Edwin Markham, and Pearl Buck. Born in Tilsenburg, Ontario in 1885, Sipprell moved with her mother at the age of ten to Buffalo, New York where her brother Francis James Sipprell owned a portrait studio. It was here where she began her life's work, leaving school at the age of sixteen to devote all of her time to the studio,eventually becoming a partner in the business. During this period, artificial lighting was growing in popularity among photographers, including her brother. However, many sources indicate that Sipprell developed her own standards as she continued using natural light, never cropping her photographs, or retouching her negatives. She used a large 8" by 10" camera, usually with a soft-focus lens. Unlike many modern photographers who take hundreds of photographs and then choose the best, Sipprell "stalked" her subjects, studied them and then shot only when she really felt she had caught the "moment of light." Sipprell won numerous prizes through the Buffalo Camera Club at a time when women were forbidden to have membership. At the age of thirty, in 1915, Sipprell moved to New York City with Jessica Beers and opened her own photographic studio in Greenwich Village. She also became the contract photographer for the Ethical Culture School, where Beers worked as a principal. She gained considerable technical knowledge during her time in New York City through contact with leading photographers in the city. She joined the Pictorial Photographers of America, the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, and the Arts Club of Washington. The 1920s and 1930s were a period of high acclaim for Sipprell, as she received many prizes from various exhibitions at home and abroad for not only her portraits, but also her still-lifes and landscapes. Her cityscape, "New York - Old and New" was one of the first photographs obtained by the Museum of Modern Art in the 1930s. Throughout her stay in New York City, Sipprell spent her summers in Vermont. Her connection with Thetford began in 1917 when she took a series of photographs for Camp Hamoum, a girls' overnight camp located on Thetford Hill. Two years later, she illustrated the Camp's catalog. She maintained a studio in Thetford for seventeen years. The Thetford phase of Sipprell's career was probably her most productive. During those years she participated in nearly a hundred exhibitions and illustrated many magazine articles. In 1954, Sipprell moved her studio to Manchester, Vermont and lived with Phyllis Fenner, a writer, librarian, and anthologist of children's books. It was here that Sipprell died at the age of 89 in 1975. Her ashes are buried in Manchester. In 1974 Sipprell received the Vermont Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. Recent solo exhibits of her work were at the Albright-Knox gallery in Buffalo, New York, the Vermont Historical Society in 1988, the Amon Carter Museum in Forth Worth, Texas in 1990, and at the Thetford Historical Society in 1993. Two books about her work have appeared: her own "Moment of Light" (1966) and Mary K. McCabe's "Clara Sipprell, Pictorial Photographer" (1990).

Photographer

Anne Eliza Brainerd Smith was a prolific writer. The eldest daughter of politician and abolitionist Lawrence Brainerd and Fidelia B. Gadcombe, she married John Gregory Smith. A prominent lawyer, politician, and railroad developer, John Gregory Smith served as governor of Vermont during the Civil War. The couple had six children; their son, Edward, served as governor during the Spanish-American War. Under the name, Mrs. J. Gregory Smith, or anonymously, Smith wrote essays on religious topics, poems, and several important novels in the late nineteenth century. Her novel, "Seola" (1878), was revised and republished under the title "Angels and Women" in 1924. Anne Smith became prominent in Vermont, both because of her husband's position and her own writings, which led to many speaking engagements. She became involved in local charitable work and served as president of the Warner Home for Little Wanderers. In 1876, she became president of the managers of the Vermont women's exhibit at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. She traveled widely, both in the United States and abroad. Smith's papers can be found at the St. Albans Museum. Correspondence with her husband is located at the Vermont Historical Society.

Writer

Lucy Mack Smith was the mother of the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith Jr. She wrote the memoir, "Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations." Lucy Mack was the youngest of eight children born to Solomon and Lydia Gates Mack. She grew up in a deeply religious household in Gilsum, New Hampshire. While visiting her brother Stephen in Tunbridge, Vermont, she met her future husband, Joseph Smith Sr., whom she married on January 24, 1796. Her brother and his business partner provided her with a generous dowry of $1,000. Smith and her husband moved to Tunbridge, Vermont in 1802, where Joseph Smith Sr. opened a store. Lucy Smith grew seriously ill and had little hope for survival, but after much prayer, she heard the voice of Christ and began to recover. From then on, she was on a constant quest to find religious instruction and was baptized, although not into a particular church. The Smith family struggled financially, and after losing their farm in Tunbridge, they moved multiple times, living in Royalton, Tunbridge, and Sharon, where Joseph Smith Jr. was born. In 1811, the Smith family moved to Lebanon, New Hampshire, where Lucy Smith felt stable enough to enroll the older children in school. Unfortunately, typhoid fever struck the area, and by the time the family was healthy, they found themselves in financial difficulty. They moved to Norwich, Vermont where they worked as tenant farmers and suffered three years of successive crop failure. This led Joseph Sr., Lucy, and their eight children to move to Palmyra, New York, where they spent some time trying to decide what local church they should join. Fourteen-year-old Joseph asked God which church to choose and experienced what is now known as the "First Vision." After confessing what he had seen to a pastor, the persecutions against the family began. Lucy Smith was supportive of her son and believed that he spoke the truth when he presented the stories of the Book of Mormon. She traveled with him as he spoke his message, and even after Joseph Jr. was martyred in 1844, her religious conviction remained strong. Smith wrote "Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors For Many Generations," in 1853. This has been reprinted as "The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother," edited by Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor. She planned to travel to Utah once a Mormon settlement was established, but died in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1856.

Farmer Author

Barbara Weil Snelling was very active in education, politics and business in Vermont throughout her life. She graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was married to Richard Snelling, who served as governor of Vermont for five terms before his death on August 13, 1991. As First Lady of Vermont, she was the founding chair of Friends of the Vermont State House, a group dedicated to the restoration of the Vermont State House. Following the death of her husband, she ran for the position of Lieutenant Governor and served two terms from 1993-1997. In 1996, she began her campaign for Governor, but was forced to drop out of the race due to a life-threatening cerebral hemorrhage. Her career was far from over, however. She returned to politics and won a seat in the Vermont State Senate from 1997-1999 and 2001-2003. While in the Senate she served on the Appropriations Committee (1997-1999), the Natural Resources and Energy Committee (1997-1999; 2001-2003) and the Health and Welfare Committee (2001-2003). In 2000, Snelling was nominated by President Clinton to be a member of the United State's Institute of Peace, a bipartisan board that promotes peace and conflict resolution through education and training. Snelling fell ill in 2002 and her daughter Barbara was appointed by Governor Howard Dean to complete her mother's term in the Senate. Aside from her political career, Snelling was active in Vermont education. At the local level, she was a member of the Shelburne School Board, and she was the first Chair of the Board of Champlain Union Valley High School. At the state level, she was President of the Vermont School Board Association. She also served as the Vice President of Development and External affairs at the University of Vermont from 1974-1982. Snelling was a trustee at Champlain College and received honorary degrees from Norwich University, Middlebury College, and the University of Vermont. She served her state in a business capacity by founding Snelling and Kolb, Inc., an international consulting firm that helps non-profit organizations. Snelling was also involved with a variety of Vermont organizations over the years. She served on the Board of Directors of Chittenden Bank, the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Vermont Council on Quality and the New England Dollars for Scholars. Snelling was a member of the Vermont Commission on Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation, was chair of the Chittenden County United Way, and was a founding trustee of the Vermont Community Foundation. Barbara Snelling was named Vermont Chamber of Commerce's Citizen of the Year and served as a trustee of the Shelburne Museum. Barbara Snelling died at her home on November 2, 2015.

City

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

Esther Hartigan Sorrell was a Vermont State Senator (1973-1983) who helped launch the political careers of many people, including Governors Madeleine Kunin and Howard Dean. Esther Hartigan was born on April 24, 1920 in Burlington, Vermont and remained a local for her entire life. She attended Cathedral High School and Trinity College, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1942. That summer, on June 20, she married Thomas W. Sorrell, with whom she had five children. Her son, William H. Sorrell, was the longest-serving Attorney General of the State of Vermont. Sorrell was always active in politics and was nicknamed "Mother of the Democratic Party." In the beginning, she spent time stuffing envelopes and working on check lists, but her influence quickly grew. She tirelessly worked to get others elected, and the base of many Democratic political campaigns was her kitchen table. In 1972, she and some of her female friends realized that, in addition to working for male candidates, they could be candidates for office too. She was particularly involved with the Women's Political Caucus, and, at one meeting, she was persuaded to run for office. Sorrell served five terms in the Vermont State Senate from 1973-1983, when she decided not to run for re-election. For several years, she was the only female senator. While Sorrell served in office, she continued to recruit others to join politics, most notably two future governors of Vermont, Madeleine Kunin and Howard Dean. Sorrell will also be remembered for her "Good Friday Speech" which helped gain legislative approval for an increase in the Aid to Needy Families with Children Program. She supported Jimmy Carter in his 1976 presidential campaign, carried his banner at the Democatic National Convention, and was his Vermont Coordinator. Sorrell was also involved with the League of Women Voters. The Esther Sorrell Lecture Series at Saint Michael's College was named in her honor. Sorrell lost her battle with cancer on April 1, 1990.

Cathedral High School Trinity College, Burlington, Vermont (1942)

Political Organizer Vermont State Senator (1973-1983) Vermont coordinator for Jimmy Carter for President campaign

Sallie Soule served as Commissioner of Employment and Training under Governor Madeleine Kunin. She founded the Vermont Women's Health Center in 1972 and spent two terms in the Vermont House of Representatives and two terms in the Vermont Senate. Sarah T. Soule (Sallie) was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and received an AB in History from Smith College in 1950. She continued to pursue her studies at the University of Vermont, where she received an MA in History in 1952. Soule moved to New York City after graduation and worked for Macmillan Publishing Company before moving to Rochester, New York to work for Eastman Kodak. She met her husband, Gardner Soule, there and they were married in 1958. Ten years later, the couple moved to Vermont. They owned the F. H. Horseford Nursery in Charlotte until the mid-1970's, when Soule entered politics. Soule also became a partner in Bygone Books in Burlington. She founded the Vermont Women's Health Center in 1972 and spent eight years in the Vermont Legislature as a Representative (1977-1981) and then a Senator (1981-1985). She served on the Ways and Means Committee and on the State Judicial Nominating Board while in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, she served on the Appropriations, Government Operations, and Natural Resources Committees. In 1984, she was appointed to Governor Madeleine Kunin's transition team and was subsequently appointed Commissioner of Employment and Training in 1985. In this role, Soule was responsible for the management of training programs for the disadvantaged, unemployment benefits, job bank and employment offices. She created the Reach Up program for women and Champlain College's Single Parents Program. Soule resigned as Commissioner of Employment and Training in 1987. Soule has been recognized as a Distinguished Citizen by Champlain College and received the 1987 National Governor's Association Award for Distinguished Service to State Government. She also received an Alumni Distinguished Service Award from the University of Vermont in 2002, the YWCA Susan B. Anthony Award, the Richard H. Wadhams Community Recognition Award from the Visiting Nurse Association, the Outstanding State Legislator Award, and the Legislative Service Award. She has served on boards at the Baird Center for Children and Families, the Vermont Council on the Arts, the Preservation Trust of Vermont, the Vermont Community Foundation, the Vermont Women's Fund and Vermont Public Television. Soule was on the UVM Board of Trustees from 1989 to 1995 and the advisory boards to the UVM School of Nursing and the UVM College of Arts and Sciences.

BA, Smith College (1950) MA, University of Vermont (1952)

Administrator Politician Business Owner

Ascha Sprague grew up in a household in Plymouth, Vermont marked by poverty and ruled by an alcoholic father. She began work as a teacher at the age of twelve and taught until she was twenty. She then became very ill and was crippled by a "scrofulous disease of the joints," which was possibly a form of arthritis. As her condition worsened, she became bedridden. At the age of twenty-seven, she had a spiritual awakening in which she was told that angels were around her and needed her to tell others of their message of eternal life. Her health gradually improved and she embarked on a lecture career, carrying out her mission. Sprague was considered a trance lecturer and gave her first public speech at South Reading in July of 1854. She was a reformer on such topics as the position of women and conditions in slums and prisons, and an advocate of temperance and the abolition of slavery. She was considered a religious leader for the Spiritualist movement, which attracted many women because it enabled them to speak in public before audiences of both men and women. Sprague was also a poet. Much of her work still remains unpublished today. Some of the poetry was published in "The Banner of Light," "The World," and "The Green Mountain Sibyl." She died of a severe illness, designated as brain fever, at the age of thirty-four. Her papers were donated to the Vermont Historical Society in 1976.

Plymouth Primary School

Teacher Writer Spiritualist

Seven Years of Grace

April St. Francis-Merrill also known as April Rushlow was born in Vermont in 1968. She's now lives in Swanton, Vermont. April St. Francis is known as the first Vermont female Abenaki Chief and daughter of former chief Homer St Francis. April St. Frances-Merrill grew up watching her father fight for state and federal recognition through protests such as fish-ins. As she grew up she lived off the land as some of her ancestors did; learning the way of Abenaki life. At the age of 16, April St. Frances-Merrill ran for a seat on the Abenaki tribal council and became acting chief at 28 when her father contracted cancer. In 1996, she took over all duties as Chief of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi - St. Francis/Sokoki Band. Her father died in 2001. St. Francis Merrill strives to preserve the ethnicity of the Missisquoi and help members take advantage of opportunities in education, employment, housing and healthcare. She and her members started a kindergarten and sent children to Vermont public schools when kindergarten was mandated for Vermont. The dropout rate in the 1980's for Abenaki was 80% and now is only 3%. St. Francis-Merrill led a fight to stop excavation of an ancient Abenaki burial ground along the Missisquoi River in Swanton-Highgate. A reburial ceremony was held. St. Francis-Merrill worked with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Affairs to preserve a three acre Abenaki Cemetery and Village in Grande Isle County. As St.Francis Merrill said, "My people hunted, fished, trapped, and lived off of the land here. Burial issues are very important to my people; we believe that if our ancestors are at unrest then this interrupts the well being of our entire community. We need to protect our ancestors for the well being of the Abenaki Nation." Embezzlement charges, later dropped, led to St. Francis-Merrill's replacement as Chief in 2012.

Abenaki Chief Activist

Elizabeth Page, who came to be called Molly Stark, was born in Haverhill, New Hampshire. She married General John Stark in 1758, who became a hero in the Battle of Bennington in 1777. Together, they had eleven children. Stark was both nurse and doctor to her husband's troops, nursing them through a smallpox endemic, and turning her house into a hospital. She believed in the new practice of innoculation to defend against smallpox, but was denied the ability to use it by local officials. Though she did not make the journey to Vermont, her husband famously invoked her name before the the Battle of Bennington. To inspire his American forces he reportedly said, "There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!" The Daughters of the American Revolution named the Manchester, New Hampshire chapter in her honor. Many businesses, schools, and streets are named after Molly Stark in both New Hampshire and Vermont. Molly Stark Mountain is part of the Green Mountain Range. There is a Vermont State Park named after her in Wilmington, Vermont on the west slope of Mount Olga. The Molly Stark Trail, now Vermont Route 9, which winds its way through Bennington, Woodford, Wilmington, Marlboro, and Brattleboro, was the route taken by General Stark as he led his victorious troops home to New Hampshire after the defeat of the British in the Battle of Bennington. A bronze statue of Molly Stark has been erected in downtown Wilmington.

Nurse

Nettie Maria Stevens was born in Cavendish, Vermont on July 7, 1861. Nettie and her sister Emma Julia (born January 14, 1863) were the surviving offspring of Ephraim Stevens and Julia Adams. In 1863, Stevens' mother died. Two years later her father married Ellen C. Thompson, a native of West Haven, Vermont, and the family moved to the Forge Village section of Westford, Massachusetts. Ephraim Stevens worked as a carpenter. He was considered successful enough for the time to provide his daughters with the best education then possible. Stevens' early education took place in the Westford public schools, where her ability as a student was noted in school records, along with a perfect attendance record. After public school, Stevens attended Westford Academy, graduating in 1880. According to Westford Academy school records, only 11 students graduated in the years between 1872-1883, and only three were women: Stevens, her sister Emma, and one other. Before beginning college work, Stevens taught Latin, English, math, physiology, and zoology at a Lebanon, New Hampshire high school for three terms. Then she entered the Westfield Normal School in Westfield, Massachusetts (now Westfield State College) where she was an outstanding student who appears to have completed four years of study in only two. Over the next 13 years Stevens worked as a librarian, a schoolteacher and a principal's assistant. During this period her family would move from Westford to her father's hometown of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. In 1896, at the age of 35, Stevens left New England. She enrolled at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California as a physiology major. Over summer breaks Stevens worked at the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory in Pacific Grove, California. Here she studied histology (the microscopic structure of organic tissues) and cytology (the microscopic appearance of cells). Stevens received her bachelor's degree in 1899, but stayed at Stanford working on her master's thesis. In 1900 published her first paper on microbiology called, " Studies on Ciliate Infusoria." After receiving her Master's Degree, Stevens returned east to study at Bryn Mawr College. The prestigious women's liberal arts school was at the time only 15 years old and was the only institution then offering graduate degrees and doctorates to women. The college had previously employed the prominent biologists Edmund Beecher Wilson and Thomas Hunt Morgan who shared research specialties with Stevens and would later become both her mentors and her rivals. During her time at Bryn Mawr, Stevens so excelled that she was awarded a fellowship to study abroad in Italy and Germany. In 1903, Bryn Mawr awarded Stevens a PhD. In 1905, Stevens received a grant from the Carnegie Institution, which freed her financially and allowed her to devote herself to research. But Stevens remained connected with Bryn Mawr. From 1903 until her death nine years later, Stevens held the successive titles of Research Fellow in Biology, Reader in Experimental Morphology, and Associate in Experimental Morphology. The Bryn Mawr Trustees eventually created a research professorship especially for her, but by then she was already suffering from terminal breast cancer. Stevens died on May 4, 1912. Nettie Stevens was one of the first female scientists in America to be recognized for her contribution to science. Her important work was in the field of cytogenetics (the branch of genetics dealing with the cellular components, particularly chromosomes, associated with heredity). In a 1905 study of mealworms, she identified the Y chromosome and hypothesized that sex determination was dependent on the presence or absence of the Y chromosome. Following her death, her previous teacher, Thomas Hunt Morgan, publicly dismissed Stevens, suggesting she was more of a researcher than a scientist. Credit for discovering the chromosomal basis for sex determination is generally given to Edmund Beecher Wilson, who was doing similar research independently at Columbia University, but who had read Stevens' theories before publishing his own. For their work in genetics, Hunt and Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933.

Ann Reynolds Story was born in Preston, Connecticut and married Amos Story in 1755. They had five children, Solomon, Ephraim, Samuel, Susanna, and Hannah. In 1774, the family moved to Rutland, Vermont. Amos and Samuel left to go further north and build a home for the family in Salisbury. While clearing land, a large tree fell on Amos, killing him instantly. Ann decided to bring her children to the home that their deceased father had built for them. In 1776, the home was set on fire by the Indians, but the family rebuilt the home with an escape tunnel leading to Otter Creek, in case of another surprise attack. One day the Story boys found a young woman who had been captured by Indians but left behind when she could not keep up. She was pregnant, so the family took her in and Ann served as midwife when the baby was born. This was during the American Revolution, and one morning, a Royalist named Ezekiel Jenny walked by and heard the baby cry. Jenny waited for Story to emerge and confronted her with his musket in the hopes that she would betray her allies, but she would not. After Jenny left, Story sent a message to the Green Mountain Boys which resulted in the capture of a Tory group. Story was a valuable aid and advisor to the Green Mountain Boys. She once said to them, "I cannot live to see my children murdered before my eyes - give me a place among you and see if I am the first to desert my post." Her cabin was used for rest and shelter by the Patriots and as a message drop. At the age of fifty-one, Story married Benjamin Smalley and moved to Middlebury. When he passed away, she married Captain Stephen Goodrich, also of Middlebury. She died on April 5, 1817 at the age of seventy-five. A reproduction cabin was constructed on the site of her original log home in Salisbury as a tourist attraction. The accompanying monument reads, "In grateful memory of her service in the struggle of the Green Mountain Boys for independence." The cabin was destroyed by arson, though the monument still remains.

Midwife Farmer

Born Miranda Aldis Brainerd, Miranda Stranahan was a charter member of the Bellevue Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in 1886. She was descended from Captain David Smith. From 1902 to 1903 she was Regent of that chapter. She went on to serve as State Regent of DAR from 1903 to 1907. Brainerd served as the third Vice-President of the Vermont Society of Colonial Dames, and later became President of that organization. She was President of the Needlework Guild. She was active in the Daughters of 1812, and the Descendants of the Mayflower. Brainerd also served on the Board of the Warner House, now a National Historic Landmark in Portsmouth, NH. On August 26, 1862 she was married to Farrand Stewart Stranahan, a Civil War veteran and Vermont politician. They had two children.

Community Leader

Elizabeth Taylor, artist, writer, botanist and explorer, was born in Columbus, Ohio on January 8, 1856. The fifth daughter of Chloe (Langford) and James J. Taylor, American Consul in Winnepeg (1870-1893), experienced her first trip at the age of six months when the family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, her father's home state. Taylor was raised with education and adventure. Accompanying her father on frequent business trips throughout Canada, Minnesota and Washington, Taylor developed a love for nature and the great outdoors. Taylor attended art school, first in New York and later in Paris, and continued private endeavors in Venice, Florence and other locations. During her father's twenty-year tenure as consul to Manitoba, she traveled (often alone) under the protection of the Catholic Church and experienced the wild grandeur and the then untouched beauty of the Canadian Northwest. Taylor attended the last great Sun Dance allowed to be given by the Indian tribes of Canada and was the first white/Caucasian/non-native woman to accompany the Hudson Bay Fur Company on a fur-gathering expedition down the MacKenzie River to its delta " the land of the Eskimo. Later trips took her to Alaska and in 1893 she toured Norway on ponyback, "traversing Hardanger Vidda, the upland summer pastures, throughout its greatest length and over its highest ridges." In 1895 while headed to Iceland to study Eider Duck farms, Taylor's boat stopped at Thorshavn, capital city and principal port of the Danish Faroe Islands. After one look at this desolate spot with its little sod-roofed wooden houses, Taylor knew she would return. Five years later, in May of 1900, Taylor returned to the islands for an almost six-year stay, "always curious about nature and mankind, feeling that no hardships were too great if she could catch an elusive fish, get a glimpse of a certain rare flower or watch the great whale hunts." Taylor would next return to these same islands in early 1914, and was effectively "marooned" throughout World War I, performing relief work among an almost starving people who expected at any time to fall under the German army. She studied plant and bird life and immersed herself in the folklore, superstitions, customs and dances of the Faroes. As an amateur botanist, she was the first to discover and record two unknown insects, one of which was given her name, Pseudosiana Taylori. Taylor wrote of her amazing and oftentimes harrowing experiences, submitting her stories to British and American newspapers and magazines. However, "writing did not come easy to Mistela (as the Faroe Islanders called her) -- one short article would take months of study and of concentrated and conscientious labor." In July 1919, at the age of sixty-three Taylor said goodbye to her beloved Faroe Islands for the last time. Five years later found her in Rochester, having visited Vermont in 1888 and again, in 1908 when she had spent part of a summer in Dorset. In 1909 she had been in Windham and Bennington giving club talks about her Faroe Island adventures. For the following two summers she was a summer boarder at the small Rochester North Hollow farm of Mrs. Blanche Dunham Hubbard, doing a little painting and writing two articles for the Atlantic Monthly. But it wasn't until many years later in 1924 that Taylor returned permanently to North Hollow and built a rather primitive two-room cabin on the Hubbard property. Her love of flowers resulted in beautiful flower and rock gardens at Wake Robin Cabin, where today many of those flowers still return each Spring. Taylor died on Tuesday, March 8, 1932 at 6:00 in the evening.

Explorer Artist Journalist Botanist

Born in 1870 in Morrisville, Vermont, Bertha Mary Terrill was a pioneer in home economics education becoming the first woman faculty member at the University of Vermont. In 1909, University President Buckham asked her to start a home economics program at the school. It was a new and innovative field, based in science and led by women. As a teenager, in order to attend high school at St. Johnsbury Academy, Terrill worked for room and board at the school. She went to Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1896. Terrill taught Greek and Latin at a private high school in Massachusetts for four years bfore she began teaching home economics at the School of Religious Pedagogy in Hartford, Connecticut in 1901. The School of Religous Pedagogy was a college affiliated with the Hartford Theological Seminary and specialized in educating teachers and missionaries. When Terrill began teaching at the university level, she did not have graduate education in home economics, however, it was a new field. Throughout the eight years that she taught in Hartford, she pursued a rigorous course of study in home economics to master her subject area. Between 1901 and 1909, she studied social sciences at Yale, chemistry at Harvard, spent a year at the School of Housekeeping in Boston to study with Ellen Richards and was awarded a fellowship to attend the University of Chicago where she received her Master's Degree in Home Economics. Through this complicated course of study, Terrill studied with many leaders of the Home Economics movement. Ellen Richards, the first woman to graduate and teach at MIT, became a mentor to Terrill. At the University of Chicago, Terrill worked with notables such as Marion Talbot and Sophonisba Breckenridge. All of these women provided recommendations for Terrill when she arrived at the University of Vermont soon after receiving her master's degree. Soon after arriving at UVM in 1909, Terrill began to piece together the home economics department at a time when the introduction of practical education was controversial among universities. Later in her life, she noted that if she had known she would face so much prejudice, she might not have come to Vermont. However, throughout the years, because of her determination and love of science and learning, Terrill built the home economics department at UVM into a successful academic program. Along with her academic accomplishments, which were many, Terrill also pursued many other endeavors in her life. With her colleague and lifelong friend, Sara Holbrook, an education professor at the University of Vermont, they established the Burlington Community Center in 1937. The goal of the center was to help settle immigrants into the city of Burlington. Terrill and Holbrook implemented Americanization classes, the first preschool in Burlington, as well as many other beneficial community programs. The community center still functions today as the Sara Holbrook Community Center. By the time she retired in 1940, the University of Vermont awarded Terrill an honorary doctorate. Immediately after her retirement, Terrill learned how to weave from an expert in Montreal. In her Burlington apartment, she devoted herself to weaving and selling her work to earn money for the UVM scholarship in her name. In 1952, the University of Vermont constructed the Bertha M. Terrill Home Economics Building and commissioned a painting of Terrill that hung for many years in the building. It is now located in the Memorial Lounge of the Waterman Building on campus. Terrill died in December 1968 at 98 years of age.

Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts (1896) MA in Home Economics, University of Chicago Completed studies in social sciences and chemistry at Yale and Harvard.

Professor of Home Economics Dean of Women at the University of Vermont

Mari Tomasi was a prominent Vermont writer and journalist. Tomasi was born in Montpelier, Vermont on January 30, 1907. Her parents were Italian immigrants from Turin, in northern Italy. Tomasi's original goal in college was to study medicine. She attended both Wheaton and Trinity College and discovered her passion was for writing and not medicine. After college, she wrote for magazines and newspapers, eventually becoming city editor of the Montpelier Evening Argus. She also was a member of the Vermont Federal Writers' Project, where she and Roaldus Richmond collected interviews of various people in Barre, Vermont. They interviewed them about what their lives were like during the Depression. This collection of interviews entitled "Men Against Granite" was delayed in publishing until 2004. She wrote her first book in 1940, it was entitled "Deep Grow the Roots". It won one of the ten outstanding first novels for that year. Due to the success of her first novel, Tomasi won the Breadloaf Writers' Conference Fellowship in 1941. In her second novel, "Like Lesser Gods," published in 1949, Tomasi wrote about the hardship Italian granite workers faced in Barre, Vermont. Much of her writing concerned the situation of Italian immigrants in New England and in particular Italian immigrants in Vermont. As well as writing these books and being a journalist through out World War II, Tomasi also became involved in government. She edited 3 volumes of "Vermont, Its Government". She also served one term as a Representative in the Vermont House of Representatives. Tomasi was appointed as a repersentative in December 22, 1949 to take over for Fred Gleason who had died. Her term ended on January 5, 1951. Tomasi died on November 10, 1965 after a bountiful career as a writer, journalist and government official She dedicated herself to telling the story of Italian immigrants across New England and especially in Vermont.

Wheaton College BA, Trinity College, Burlington, Vermont

City Editor of the Montpelier Evening Argus Legislator, Vermont House of Representatives Writer

Originally from Boston, Tudor lived in Vermont from the early 1970s until her death in 2008. She authored 30 children's books and illustrated nearly 100, from "Pumpkin Moonshine" in 1938 to 2003's "The Corgiville Christmas." She painted detailed watercolors and was particularly known for elaborate, fancy borders. Tudor's illustrations appeared in well-known children's titles like R.L. Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" and "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Two of Tudor's books were named Caldecott Honor Books: "Mother Goose" (1944) and "1 Is One" (1956). In 1971, Tudor received the Regina Medal from the Catholic Library Association for her contributions to children's literature. Originally born Starling Burgess, Tasha was a nickname given by her father after a character in "War and Peace." Tudor's father was an illustrious shipbuilder also named Starling. Her mother was Rosamund Tudor, who earned money by painting portraits and who went by her maiden name of Tudor, even after her marriage. When Tasha Tudor was seven years old, her parents divorced and she began using her mother's name. At some point, she had her name legally changed and officially became Tasha Tudor. Besides her writing and illustrations, Tudor was renowned for her fondness for a bygone era. She lived most of her life as though it were the early 1800s. An avid gardener, Tudor raised her own livestock and grew her own crops, including flax that she spun into fabric for handmade dresses. In 1938, Tasha married Thomas Leighton McCready, Jr. in Redding, Connecticut. The couple moved to Webster, New Hampshire, where they had purchased a 17-room farmhouse on 450 acres that lacked electricity and running water. Here, Tudor raised her four children, daughters Bethany and Efner, and sons Seth and Thomas. Tudor was divorced from McCready in 1961 and later from a second husband, Allan John Woods. But she remained in the New Hampshire farmhouse until the early 1970s, when her son Seth hand-built his mother a home neighboring his own in rural Vermont. In later years, Tudor was admired as much for her lifestyle and gardening as for her illustrations. The New York Times called her "a 19th century Martha Stewart." In addition to her children's books, she published books on heirloom crafts and gardening, an autobiography, and a cookbook.

Author Illustrator Gardener

Daisy Turner was born in Grafton, Vermont, one of thirteen children born to parents who were former slaves. She was a famous for her oral recordings of her family's history, which can be traced back three generations to Africa. Turner's great-grandmother was shipwrecked while traveling from England to Africa on her honeymoon during the early 19th century. She was saved by an African chieftain's son, and had a child with him (Daisy's grandfather, Alexander). Alexander was captured by a slave trader and taken to New Orleans, where he was bought by John Gouldin and taken to Gouldin's plantation in Port Royal, Virginia. There, Daisy's father, Alec, was born a slave. Alec was taught to read by the master's granddaughter, and later escaped, joining the Union Army during the Civil War. After the Civil War, the Turner family moved north, where her father worked in a saw mill and raised enough money to purchase a 100 acres in Grafton, Vermont and build Journey's End Farm. Daisy Turner was proud of her family heritage, and was a strong, outspoken woman from childhood to her death at the age of 104. Daisy Turner is remembered as a gifted storyteller and family historian. She is the subject of the Vermont Folklife Center's Peabody Award-winning audio documentary, "Journey's End: The Memories and Traditions of Daisy Turner". Stories from her life have also been the subject of two Vermont Folklife Center books, "Alec's Primer" and "Daisy and the Doll". Daisy Turner maintained Journey's End after her parents' deaths. The Turner family homestead is located on the "Daisy Turner Loop", a biking trail near Grafton Pond.

Storyteller Farmer

Berenice R. Tuttle devoted much of her life to community service and to running the family business, Tuttle Publishing. Born into the prominent Tuttle family of Rutland, she worked for the family's printing and publishing business as a young woman. She graduated from Smith College in 1902, having spent her summers working in the company's editorial department. After graduation, she worked for the company and for two years in the editorial department at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in New York. In 1935, at the age of fifty-five, she became president of the Tuttle Company, when it was one of the largest publishers of genealogies in the country. Tuttle Publishing is still in business today. Beyond her family's business, Tuttle's two major interests in life were welfare work and women's clubs. One of the founders of the Rutland Woman's Club, she became president of the club from 1914-1916 and was president of the Vermont Federation of Woman's Clubs in 1931-1933. In addition, she served as one of the directors of the National Federation of Woman's Clubs and served as Vermont's parliamentarian. Tuttle's interest in child welfare led to her appointment as chair for Vermont's "Children's Year" in 1917. She helped organize the Vermont Conference of Social Work, served as president, and founded the Vermont Children's Aid Society. Tuttle's extensive civic involvement also included membership in the League of Women Voters, the American Association of University Women, and the Rutland Playground Association. She served on the Rutland school board for sixteen years, was the first commissioner of Girl Scouts in Rutland, founded the Zonta Club (a service organization for women), and served as director of the Vermont Tuberculosis Society and secretary of the Ladies' Hospital Aid Society. With a colonial ancestry, Tuttle was also regent of the Ann Story Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a member of the Vermont Society of Colonial Dames, and secretary of the Daughters of Colonial Wars. She contributed articles to various journals and magazines and became a member of the Vermont Writers' League. Tuttle was listed in Who's Who of New England Women and Who's Who of American Women. In 1920, Tuttle served as Secretary of the Republican State Convention and as an alternate to the Republican National Convention, which chose Warren G. Harding as presidential nominee and Calvin Coolidge as vice-presidential nominee. Tuttle also was involved with the Rutland Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School, the Sunset House, a home for the elderly, and the Mid-Vermont Artists' Association. Devoted to making Vermont a better place, Berenice Tuttle was described in the Vermonter magazine in 1933 as "vigorous in administration, buoyant, irrepressible, adored."

Smith College (1902)

Executive Editor

Mary Palmer Tyler wrote one of the earliest childcare manuals published by an American woman. Raised in Watertown, Massachusetts, she was the eldest daughter of Elizabeth Hunt and patriot Joseph Pearse Palmer, who had graduated from Harvard College and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Both her parents encouraged Mary to read and helped to develop her intellect. During the Revolutionary War, the Palmers lost much of their wealth and resorted to apprenticing Mary as a mother's helper to wealthy friends; later they sent her to live with relatives in eastern New York, and in 1793 she briefly taught school. Mary Palmer married her father's friend Royall Tyler, a Harvard-educated lawyer, well-known as the author of the early American comedy, "The Contrast" (1787). Their first child, born in December 1794, was probably conceived before their marriage during a period when Royall was traveling to Vermont seeking opportunity as a lawyer. The couple eventually migrated to Guilford in 1796. They purchased a farm in Brattleboro in 1801, the same year Royall was appointed to the Vermont Supreme Court. While he traveled the state as a jurist, Mary raised eleven children on their Brattleboro farm. In 1811 Mary Tyler published "The Maternal Physician" anonymously through her husband's publishing contacts. The manual is significant because Tyler outlined an expanded role in child rearing for mothers beyond the customary practice of colonial women. She included advice about the best methods to encourage a child's moral character and intellectual development beyond infancy. Her philosophy was rooted in Lockean beliefs about the ability of parents to mold their children and in the Republican Mother ideal, which shifted the responsibility for this important role to mothers. Tyler encouraged her upper-class readers to breast feed their babies and to insist upon the supremacy of their maternal instincts over the authority of male physicians for routine care. Her manual supplied advice about the treatment of disease and a collection of herbal remedies. After her husband lost his position as a jurist in 1813 and subsequently became ill with cancer, Mary Tyler nursed him until his death in 1826. With help from her sons, four of whom eventually became ministers, and her daughter, with whom she opened a private school, she managed to survive as a widow. Her diaries reveal the financial hardship she endured and work she performed, including growing and spinning silk. In her later years, Tyler was devoted to her religious faith, became active in both the Episcopal and Congregational Churches, and participated in benevolent associations in Brattleboro. In 1834 she helped found the Brattleboro Maternal Association, a religiously inspired group of mothers who sought to educate their children in piety and Christian values. Tyler also took a leadership role in the temperance movement as president of the Martha Washington Society in the 1840s and supported her son in his efforts to promote anti-slavery. In old age, Tyler wrote a memoir for her children recalling her patriotic ancestry and her early married life in Vermont. Published as "Grandmother Tyler's Book" (1925) by her great-granddaughter, it features anecdotes about women's domestic work in early Vermont. Tyler died in Brattleboro just after the Civil War. Her papers are housed at the Vermont Historical Society.

Writer

Gwyneth Van Anden Walker, originally from New Canaan, Connecticut, is an eleventh-generation Quaker. She holds B.A., M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Music Composition from Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. Walker taught for fourteen years at Hartt, the Hartford Conservatory and Oberlin College before she decided to compose music full-time in Braintree, Vermont. Walker recalls falling in love with music at the age of two, when her older sister began to take piano lessons. By the first grade, she had taught herself to put notes on a staff, and had begun composing her first pieces of music. Today, her instrumental and choral publications include more than one hundred and sixty commissioned works. She writes for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, full orchestras and bands. Adept at translating the words and sounds of poetry to music, she has composed works based upon texts ranging from the Bible to E. E. Cummings to traditional folk songs and ballads. Walker composes during the day and manages the business end of making music at night. In 2000, the Vermont Arts Council recognized Walker with its Lifetime Achievement Award. During 2005 and 2006, Walker traveled across the United States working with a variety of musicians as they premiered and recorded her works. The areas of focus were choral, chamber and orchestral music. She also worked on a project that created orchestral accompaniments for a number of choral and vocal works in her catalog of pieces. The "Songs for Women's Voices," "I Thank You God," "I Will Be Earth" and the song cycle, "No Ordinary Woman!" have all been orchestrated and were performed twice at Carnegie Hall during the 2005-6 season. Walker is currently working on several choral works: New England Journey (musical settings of the poetry of New England Poets for the Worcester, Mastersingers), A Heart in Hiding: The Passionate Love Poems of Emily Dickinson (for the Thomas Circle Singers - Washington, DC) and Songs to the Lord of Peace (on texts by Thomas Merton for the Fairfield University Glee Club - Fairfield, CT). The year 2007 is Walker's "60th Celebration Year".

B.A., M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Music Composition from Brown University and the Hartt School for Music

Teacher Composer

Electra Havemeyer Webb founded the Shelburne Museum in 1947. She was the daughter of H.O. Havemeyer, the founder of the American Sugar Refining Company and Louisine Havemeyer, both of whom were leading collectors of French Impressionist art. In 1910, she married James Watson Webb, the son of Lila Vanderbilt and William Seward Webb, the founders of Shelburne Farms. Electra and James had five children together, and had homes on Long Island, in New York City, and in Shelburne, Vermont. During World War I, while her husband was overseas, Webb drove an ambulance in NYC, and became the Assistant Director of the Motor Corps. Then during World War II, she directed the Pershing Square Civil Defense Center and its blood bank. She was an advocate of giving blood and became the first blood donor in Vermont in order to promote the great need for blood by the soldiers. Webb collected folk art and antiques throughout her adult life. The first piece of art she bought was a cigar store Indian that cost her twenty-five dollars in 1908. She accumulated such a wealth of items that she and her husband decided to establish the Shelburne Museum. She focused on simple objects and entire buildings, rather than impressionist art like her mother. Webb also enjoyed hunting and collected wildlife. She and her husband purchased eight acres of land in Shelburne, and the museum officialy opened to the public in 1952. The museum has the finest early carriage collection in America, and now includes 180,000 items. One of its most famous exhibits is the steamship Ticonderoga. The Ticonderoga is the last walking beam side-wheel passenger steamer in existence. It was built in Shelburne in 1906 and it operated as a day boat on Lake Champlain serving ports along the New York and Vermont shores until 1953. In 1955, the ship was moved two miles overland from the lake to Shelburne Museum, a huge engineering feat. Webb also had various buildings relocated to the grounds of the Shelburne Museum, the first of which was the Dutton House, which portrays the life of a New England family from the 1820's. Another example of Webb having an entire building moved is the abandoned lighthouse from Colchester Reef on Lake Champlain. It was dismantled in 1952 and re-constructed at the Museum. Her collections include American paintings, Impressionist paintings, folk art (which is said to be the finest collection in the nation), historic houses, and the largest U.S. museum collection of glass canes, trivets, and food molds. Other collections include quilts and hooked rugs, decoys, 19th century tools, the previously mentioned carriages, toys, dolls, Native American artifacts, miniature circus figures and circus posters. Webb died in 1960, but the Shelburne Museum remains an important part of Vermont.

Miss Spence's, a private girls' school in New York, New York

Assistant Director of the Motor Corps Director of the Pershing Square Civil Defense Center Ambulance Driver Antique and painting collector

Born in 1860 to William H. and Maria Vanderbilt, Eliza (Lila) Osgood Vanderbilt was considered the least known of their eight children. At the age of 17, Lila met Seward Webb, a 26-year-old medical student. They married in 1881 and had four children. Lila and her husband, Dr. Seward Webb, began acquiring farmland on the shores of Lake Champlain in 1886. Their farm became a model agricultural estate. In the mid 1890's, however, the farming operations declined. In 1972, family descendants incorporated the farm as an educational nonprofit organization called Shelburne Farms. Shelburne Farms continues to serve as an educational resource by practicing rural land use that is environmentally, economically and culturally sustainable. It is a non-profit organization hosting an environmental education center, a working 1400 acre farm, and it is a National Historic Landmark. The mansion on the property has been transformed into an inn. Tourists can even stay in Lila's old room.

Miss Porter's School

Delia Webster was born on December 17, 1817 in Vergennes, Vermont, an area with strong anti-slavery sentiment. She attended Vergennes Classical School, and later studied at Oberlin College. Oberlin had a reputation for its abolitionist activities and was a station on the underground railroad. Webster left Oberlin due to an unknown dispute with the college. In 1843 Webster then moved on to Lexington, Kentucky where she founded the Lexington Female Missionary Society, a girl's school. In 1844, she and the Methodist minister Calvin Fairbank succeeded in transporting a black family (Lewis Hayden, his wife, Harriet, and their young son, Joseph) across the border to freedom in Ohio. Webster and Fairbank were, however, caught on the return trip. Webster was sentenced to two years in the state penitentiary, though Kentucky's governor pardoned her after she spent two months in jail. As a condition of her release, she proclaimed that she was not an abolitionist, which was obviously a false statement. Webster returned to Vermont and wrote a book (published 1845) with her father about her trial. After a few years in the north, she moved to Madison, Ind., on the Kentucky border, where she tutored children and became a governess. She then bought a farm in Kentucky, where newspapers soon reported that many slaves had disappeared. She left Kentucky in 1854 after raids on the farm, threats, and scandal. She continued to lecture and write for a while. Webster died in Iowa in 1904 at the age of eighty-six.

Attended courses at Oberlin College

Abolitionist Teacher

Lucy Wheelock was born in Cambridge, Vermont and attended Underhill Academy before moving to Reading, Massachusetts. While in school, she traveled into Boston for French lessons and began to learn translation. She graduated from Reading High School in 1874. Wheelock returned to Vermont to teach for several years but then went back to Massachusetts to study at the Chauncey Hall School in Boston. She planned to attend Wellesley College, but after visiting a kindergarten class, she believed she had found her avocation. She was advised to enter the training school of Mrs. Ella Snelling Hatch, which she completed in 1879. She returned to Chauncey Hall, where she taught kindergarten for ten years. Lucy Wheelock was particularly fond of the ideas presented by Friedrich Frobel, the founder of kindergarten. While teaching at Chauncey Hall, she translated his works along with those by Johanna Spyri, the author of "Heidi." In 1888 Boston instituted kindergartens in the Boston Public Schools. At Chauncey Hall, the Wheelock Training School was established, and Lucy Wheelock trained fellow teachers in a one year program. In 1893 the program was expanded to two years and in 1896 Wheelock left the Chauncey Hall School to form the independent Wheelock Kindergarten Training School. The training of teachers for primary grades was begun in 1899, and training of nursery school teachers began in 1926. In 1929, the kindergarten course was further lengthened to three years. Eventually, the Wheelock School expanded and by 1939, when Wheelock retired as Director, it had 325 students and 23 faculty members. While training teachers in the field of kindergarten education, Wheelock also worked to extend kindergarten education to the poor. In 1895, she organized a free kindergarten at Hope Chapel, and later founded another kindergarten at South End House, a Boston social settlement. Wheelock became active in the national kindergarten movement and served as the president of the International Kindergarten Movement. She also was involved with the National Congress of Mothers, a forerunner of the Parent Teachers Association and, in 1929, she was appointed to the Educational Committee of the League of Nations. She is also known for applying kindergarten teaching methods to Sunday School classes. She taught a Saturday afternoon training class at the Primary Sunday School Union, which led to requests for her to speak at Sunday School teachers conventions nationwide. Throughout her career, Wheeler wrote extensively. She produced numerous stories with moral themes for children including, "Allan's Thanksgiving," "Clifton's Lunch," "Cousin Ruth," and "A Lily's Mission." She also continued to translate works, such as "Red Letter Stories," and "Swiss Stories for Children," which were originally written by Johanna Spyri. She published a weekly column called "Hints to Teachers," in the Congregationalist, and was the editor of a weekly Boston Sunday school journal, "The Child's Hour." In 1920 she published, "Talks to Mothers," with Elizabeth Colson, which discussed child rearing, schooling, and the relationship between home and school. In 1939 she retired as the director of the Wheelock School, which became Wheelock College in 1941. During her time there, she was awarded the Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Vermont in 1925. Her achievements were recognized with the highest honorary degree given to a woman at that time. On October 2, 1946 Lucy Wheelock died in Boston.

Reading High School (1874) Chauncey Hall School Training School with Mrs. Ella Snelling Hatch (1879)

Emma Willard was a strong advocate for women's education and founded an early school of higher education for women in Middlebury. One of 17 children, she was encouraged by her father to pursue an education (an unusual pursuit for women at that time). She started teaching at 17, and, after teaching for several years in Massachusetts, she accepted an offer to teach in Middlebury, Vermont in 1807. There she met and married John Willard, a physician 28 years her senior. Observing the dramatic difference in the quality of education her nephew received at Middlebury College, she began her life's work of making "classical" education available to young women. Willard started the Middlebury Female Seminary in her home in 1814, teaching scientific and classical subjects previously thought only suited to men. The success of the school prompted her to write "An Address to the Public...Proposing a Plan for Improving Female Education". Readers as prominent as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were impressed with her ideas. The Governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, invited Willard to open a school in his state. This invitation led to the establishment of a school in Waterford, NY in 1819 and the Troy Female Seminary in 1821. Willard pioneered the teaching of science, mathematics, and social studies to young women. By 1831, the Troy Female Seminary had an enrollment of over 300. Willard was head of the school until 1838, at which time she left the school to pursue writing, traveling and lecturing. In 1895, the Troy Seminary was renamed the Emma Willard School. Willard published many books in her lifetime, including several textbooks: "History of the United States, or Republic of America"(1828) and "A System of Universal History in Perspective" (1835). She also published a volume of verse titled "The Fulfillment of a Promise" (1831). Some of her later works include: "A Treatise on the Motive Powers Which Produce the Circulation of the Blood" (1846), "Guide to the Temple of Time and Universal History for Schools" (1849), "Last Leaves of American History" (1849), "Astronography; or Astronomical Geography" (1854), and "Morals for the Young" (1857). In the mid-19th century, when many feminists advocated suffrage for women, Emma Willard, instead, argued that education was a more pressing need for women.

Teacher Writer Administrator Lecturer

Jody Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her efforts to ban the use of landmines worldwide. Prior to this, she worked from 1984 to 1986 as a co-coordinator of the Nicaragua-Honduras Education Project, and was an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Washington, D.C. From 1986 to 1992, she developed and directed humanitarian relief projects as the deputy director of the LA based Medical Aid for El Salvador. Williams is the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which was formally launched by six non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in October of 1992. Since then, she has seen the growth of ICBL to more than 1,300 NGOs and has served as the chief strategist and spokesperson for the campaign. The ICBL achieved its goal of an international treaty to ban antipersonnel landmines during a conference held in Oslo, Norway in September 1997. Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. She is only the tenth woman to be awarded the Peace Prize, and the third United States woman to be honored. Her writings include a study based on two years of field research in four mine-affected countries that details the socio-economic consequences of landmines. She has written articles for journals produced with the United Nations. She served as a technical advisor the UN's 1995 Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, and continues to participate in conferences and seminars around the world. She has been awarded honorary doctorates from Pennsylvania State University, Franklin Pierce College, Wesleyan University, The Royal Military College of Canada, Regis University, Shenshu University (Japan), Rochurst University, Williams College, Briar Cliff College, Marlboro College, and the University of Vermont. She is the recipient of numerous other awards, including one of the "100 Most Powerful Women in the World," by Forbes Magazine in 2004 and the Vermonter of the Year in 1997. Since 1998, Williams has served as a Campaign Ambassador for the ICBL. She is also a senior editor for the annual "Landmine Monitor Report," which monitors the implementation and compliance of the Mine Ban Treaty. She is a distinguished visiting professor of Social Work and Global Justice in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Houston, for the academic years 2004-2007. Williams also works with Peacejam, an international education program built around Nobel Peace Laureates who inspire a new generation of peacemakers.

B.A. Psychology, University of Vermont (1972) M.A. School for International Training (1976) M.A., Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (1984)

Co-coordinator of the Nicaragua-Honduras Education Project ESL teacher Deputy director for Medical Aid for El Salvador Founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines

Hazel McLeod Wills was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina in 1886. She moved to Vermont when she was two years old. After attending Bennington High School, she went to Middlebury College where she was a 1909 Phi Beta Kappa graduate. She received an honorary M.A. degree from Middlebury in 1942. She supported the founding of Bennington College and served as a trustee to the school from 1946 to 1953. Wills was also a trustee at the University of Vermont for several years and was also awarded an honorary PhD from UVM. Hazel McLeod married William Wills in 1914. William Wills served as Governor of Vermont from 1941 to 1945. Together, they had one daughter, Annie Wills Pike. Wills was involved in numerous organizations including the United Counseling Service Board of Directors, the Vermont Association for the Crippled, the Vermont Council on World Affairs, the Vermont Historical Society, the Elizabeth Lund Home, and the Eastern Star. She also served as a director of Station WRY in Schenectady, New York. From 1937 to 1941 and from 1953 to 1955, Wills served as the state president of the American Association of University Women. William Wills died in 1946, but Hazel remained active in Republican Politics and the Republican Women's Club in Bennington County. In 1960, she was persuaded to run for the Vermont Senate, and she served one term. Wills also enjoyed writing and was the author of "Bill Wills & Co.", along with a weekly column in the Bennington Banner. At her death in 1969, the AAUW chapter of Vermont was given money to establish a scholarship in her name.

BA, Middlebury College (1909) MA, Middlebury College (1942)

Philanthropist Director Politician

Marguerite (Maggie) Hurrey Wolf was born in Montclair, New Jersey. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College and then did a year of post-graduate work at the Bank Street College of Education in New York City. She taught for five years at the Flank Street Nursery School and for two years at the nursery school at Sarah Lawrence College. She married George Wolf, a medical student at Cornell in 1939. Together, they had two daughters, Patty and Debbie. In 1948, they bought a small farm in Jericho Center, Vermont and became summer residents. When George became Dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, they purchased a house in South Burlington. In the attic of that house, they found a collection of historic letters and newspapers. All the letters were written to or by John Fay, whose father John, was the first American killed in the Battle of Bennington. John Jr. married Susannah (Sukey), and it was her story that started Wolf on her writing career. After seeing Wolf's story in the April 1958 issue of the Vermont Historical Society's News and Notes, Dorothy Canfield Fisher wrote to Wolf, encouraging and praising her. Since then, Wolf had more than 200 articles published in magazines such as Yankee, Vermont Life, Saturday Evening Post, Parents, Resident and Staff Physician, Early American Life, and others. Two of her books, "I'll Take the Back Road," and "Sheep's in the Meadow, Raccoons in the Corn" were chosen for Christian Herald's Family Book Club Selections. Her other books include: "How to be a Doctor's Wife Without Really Dying," "Vermont is Always With You," "Seasoned in Vermont," "At Home in Vermont," "Postmark Vermont," and "Window on Vermont." She was a guest columnist for Elders' Advocate, a publication of the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging and wrote the popular column, "Isn't Pushing 90 Exercise Enough?"

BA, Mount Holyoke (1936) Bank Street College of Education (1937)

Teacher Author

Caroline Yale began her teaching career at age 19, teaching classes of 90 in Brandon and Williston. In 1870, she moved to Northampton, Massachusetts to become a teacher of deaf children at the Clarke School. She spent the next 63 years there, working closely with Alexander Graham Bell and his father, Alexander Melville Bell. Yale developed the innovate Alexander Melville Bell's system of teaching. The result was a revolutionary system of phonetic symbols to teach the deaf. "The Northampton Vowels and Consonants Charts" became the most widely used system in the United States. This system is discussed in Yale's 1892 work, "Formation and Development of Elementary English Sounds". During Yale's 63 years at the Clarke School, she was a teacher, became Associate Principal in 1873, and in 1886 took the position of Principal. She was Principal of the Clarke School for the next 36 years. After her retirement in 1922, she continued to direct the teacher training program. She remained active with the Clarke School as a Board member for many years. She received honorary doctorate degrees from Illinois Welseyan University in 1896 and from Mount Holyoke College in 1927. An interesting side note: Caroline Yale hired a teacher, Grace Goodhue of Burlington, soon to become Mrs. Calvin Coolidge. Grace Coolidge was a life-long supporter and fund raiser for the school. In 1931, Caroline Yale published her autobiography, "Years of Building: Memories of a Pioneer in a Special Field of Education".

Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (1868) Honorary PhD, Illinoise Wesleyan (1896) and Mount Holyoke (1927)

Teacher Administrator Writer