Part 1

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SIXTEENTH THOUSAND.

NOBLE DEEDS OF AMERICAN WOMEN;

With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent.

Edited by

J. CLEMENT.,

With an introduction by Mrs. L. H. Sigourney.

Such examples should be set before them as patterns for their daily imitation.

LOCKE

New Edition Revised.

New York: Miller, Orton & Co., 25 PARK ROW. 1857.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by Geo. H. Derby & Co., In the Clerk's Office of the Northern District of New York.

Editor's Preface.

This work was suggested by one of a similar character, entitled "Noble Deeds of Woman," an English work, which contains but three references to American Women, two of which are of but very little importance. Only one article is the same in both works, and that is the letter written by Mrs. Sigourney to the women of Greece, in 1828, in behalf of the ladies of Hartford.

This failure to do justice to American women, may have been an oversight; be that as it may, a work of the kind here presented, seemed to be needed, and we regret that its preparation had not been assigned to an abler pen. Multitudes of works have been consulted, and such anecdotes gleaned as it is thought will have a salutary influence on the mind and heart. Should the records of female courage and virtue herein presented to the daughters of the land, encourage, even in the slightest degree, a laudable spirit of emulation, our humble labors will not have been put forth in vain.

Facts are more sublime than fictions; and American women have actually performed all the good, and grand, and glorious deeds which the honest and judicious novelist dares ascribe to the female sex; hence we have found no occasion, in striving to make this work interesting, to deviate from the path of historical truth.

The sources whence our materials have been derived, are largely indicated in the body of the work. Possibly, however, we may have failed, in some instances, to indicate our indebtedness to historians and biographers where such reference was justly demanded; suffice it to say, therefore, once for all, that, although something like two hundred of these pages are in our own language, we deserve but little credit for originality, and would prefer to be regarded as an unpretending compiler, rather than as an aspirant to the title of author.

J. C.

NOTE TO THE REVISED EDITION.

The fact that eight thousand copies of this work have been published in less than a year after its appearance, indicates a degree of popularity which was not anticipated. In this edition we have thrown out a few pages of the old matter, and substituted, in most instances, fresher anecdotes; and this revision, with the illustrations which the liberal-minded publishers have added, will, it is hoped, render the work still more acceptable.

J. C.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

INTRODUCTION 13

Mother of Washington 25

Wife of Washington 33

Wife of John Adams 39

Ann H. Judson 52

A Christian Woman in the Hour of Danger 66

Humanity of Hartford Ladies 69

Mother Bailey 73

Elizabeth Heard 76

Ladies of Philadelphia in 1780 78

Wife of President Reed 80

Completion of Bunker Hill Monument 85

Lydia Darrah 89

Widow Storey 93

Mrs. Hendee 95

Patriotic Women of Old Middlesex 97

The Cacique's Noble Daughter 99

Humane Spirit of a Forest Maid 104

Hannah Dustin 108

The Heroines of Bryant's Station 111

Mrs. Daviess 114

A Kentucky Amazon 118

Heroism at Innis Settlement 120

Bold Exploit at Tampico 124

Dicey Langston 125

Rebecca Motte 129

Another Sacrifice for Freedom 132

A Patriotic Donation 133

The Little Black-eyed Rebel 134

The Benevolent Quakeress 136

A Pioneer in Sunday Schools 140

The Women of Wyoming 142

Mary Gould 143

The Mother of President Polk 145

Trials of a Patriot 146

Intrepidity of Mrs. Israel 164

Incident in Missionary Life 166

A Kind-hearted Chippewa 169

Humanity of a Cherokee 170

Self-sacrificing Spirit of the Missionary 171

Daring Exploit of Two Rebels 176

Elizabeth Martin 178

The Mother's Effectual Petition 180

Noteworthy Integrity 182

A Faithful Mother 184

Mrs. Spaulding 186

Wife of Colonel Thomas 188

Exemplary Piety 190

Adventure of a Patriotic Girl 192

Mrs. Caldwell and the Tories 195

Mother of Randolph 198

Cornelia Beekman 199

Mother of West 202

Heroic Endurance 204

Maternal Heroism 211

A Modern Dorcas 213

Sarah Hoffman 218

Heroism of Schoharie Women 221

A Sterling Patriot 223

Heroic Conduct at Monmouth 237

Courage of a Country Girl 239

The Ledyards at Fort Griswold 241

Seneca Heroines 244

Martha Bratton 246

A Poor Woman's Offering 250

Mother of Jackson 251

Heroine of Fort Henry 253

A Benevolent Widow 256

Anne Fitzhugh 258

Esther Gaston 261

Remarkable Presence of Mind 263

Wife of Governor Griswold 265

Bold Exploit of a Young Girl 266

Susanna Wright 268

Patriotism of 1770 270

Mrs. Spalding 272

Mrs. Dillard 275

Phoebe Phillips 277

Example of a Poor Widow 279

Elizabeth Estaugh 284

Kate Moore, 297

Captivity of Mrs. Rowlandson 299

Mrs. Bozarth 303

Heroine of Steel Creek 305

Benevolence of a Colored Woman 308

Rebecca Edwards 309

The Beautiful Rebel 311

Harriet B. Stewart 313

A Kind and Benevolent Woman 316

Noble Example of Pioneers 320

Mrs. Slocumb 323

Wife of Captain Richardson 330

Striking Instance of Patience 331

Susannah Elliott 336

Anna Elliott 338

Patriotic Stratagem 340

Influence of a Faithful Teacher 341

Wife of Thomas Heyward 343

Noble Decision 345

A Tennessee Heroine 346

Mrs. M'Kay 352

Heroic Conduct of a Daughter 354

Heroic Decision 356

Daughter of Aaron Burr 358

Female Intrepidity 361

Wife of Richard Shubrick 362

Retort of Mrs. Ashe 365

Wife of a Drunkard 366

Mother of Dr. Dwight 370

Happy Results of Maternal Fidelity 373

Mrs. Scott 375

Success of Boldness 378

Mary Knight 380

Wife of William Gray 381

Mrs. Huntington 383

Mrs. Biddle 385

Kindness of Convicts 387

Margaret Prior 388

Noble Acts of Kindness 395

Wife of Dr. Ramsay 398

Margaret Schuyler 400

Noble Treatment of Enemies 402

Humanity Rewarded 403

Margaret Winthrop 404

A Pioneer Settler's Adventure 408

Mrs. McKenny 410

The Fisherman's Heroic Wife 416

Mrs. James K. Polk 418

Widow Jenkins 421

Faithful Little Girl 423

Hospitality of California Women 424

Sarah Lanman Smith 425

Brother saved by his Sister 429

Mrs. Borden 431

Margaret Corbin 432

Mrs. Channing 433

Commendable Courage 434

Heroine of Shell's Bush 435

Father Taylor's Widowed Friend 437

Revolutionary Mother 440

Successful Daring 443

Worthy Example of Forgiveness 444

Crookshanks saved by a Female 445

Patriotic Artist 446

Mohawk Women 448

Female in the Revolutionary Army 450

Elizabeth Brant 459

Brief Anecdotes 465

Miss D. L. Dix 474

INTRODUCTION.

The advantages of Biography are obvious and great. To the weight of precept, it adds the force and efficacy of example. It presents correct and beautiful models, and awakens the impulse to imitate what we admire. Other sciences strengthen the intellect, this influences and amends the heart. Other subjects interest the imagination, this modifies conduct and character. By the recorded actions of the great and good, we regulate our own course, and steer, star-guided, over life's trackless ocean.

In remote ages, the department of Female Biography was almost a void. Here and there on the pages of the Sacred Volume, a lineament, or a form, is sketched with graphic power, either as a warning, or bright with the hues of heaven. Yet uninspired history, though she continued to utter "her dark sayings upon the harp," was wont to relapse into silence at the name of woman. Classic antiquity scarcely presents aught that might be cited as a sustained example. In the annals of ancient Greece, the wife of one of its philosophers has obtained a place, but only through the varied trials, by which she contributed to perfect his patience. Rome but slightly lifts the household veil from the mother of the Gracchi, as she exultingly exhibits her heart's jewels. Cleopatra, with her royal barge, casts a dazzling gleam over the Cydnus, but her fame is like the poison of the reptile that destroyed her. Boadicea rushes for a moment in her rude chariot over the battle field, but the fasces and the chains of Rome close the scene.

Modern Paganism disclosed a still deeper abyss of degradation for woman. The aboriginal lord of the American forests lays the burden on the shoulder of his weaker companion, and stalks on in unbowed majesty, with his quiver and his tomahawk. Beneath the sultry skies of Africa, she crouches to drink the poison water before her judges, having no better test of her innocence than the deliverer, Death. In India, we see her plunging into the Ganges her female infants, that they may escape her lot of misery, or wrapped in the flames of the burning pile, turn into ashes with the corpse of her husband. Under the sway of the Moslem, her highest condition is a life-long incarceration, her best treatment, that of a gilded toy--a soulless slave. Throughout the whole heathen world, woman may be characterized, as Humanity, in Central Asia has been, by an elegant French writer, as "always remaining anonymous,--indifferent to herself,--not believing in her liberty, having none,--and leaving no trace of her passage upon earth."

Christianity has changed the scene. Wherever her pure and pitying spirit prevails, the sway of brute force is softened, and the "weaker vessel" upheld. Bearing in her hand the blessed Gospel, "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of the people Israel," she adds to the literature of the world a new volume, the History of Woman. She spreads a page, for which the long, slow ages had neither looked, nor inquired,--neither waited for, nor imagined, the page of female biography.

So liberal have been our own immediate times in supplying fitting materials, that an extensive and valuable library might readily be selected in this department alone. Since knowledge has shed her baptism upon the head of woman, her legitimate sphere of duty has become extended, and enriched by incident. We see her not only brought forward as a teacher, but entering unrebuked the fields of science and literature; we see her amid the hardships of colonial life, displaying a martyr's courage, or ascending the deck of the mission ship to take her part in "perils among the heathen."

The venerable moralist of Barley Wood, who so perseveringly encouraged her sex to reflect, to discriminate, to choose the good and refuse the evil, who, after attaining the age of sixty years, presented them with eleven new and instructive volumes, has not long laid down her pen, for the rest and reward of the righteous. That high souled apostle of erring, suffering humanity, to whose dauntless benevolence crowned heads did honor, whose melodious voice I almost fancy that I again hear, as in the plain garb of her order, she stood as a tutelary being among the convicts at Newgate,--she has but recently arisen to that congenial society of the just made perfect, who rejoice over "one sinner that repenteth."

And the harp of that tuneful one, so recently exchanged for a purer harmony, still breathes upon our hearts the echoes of her varied lay, as when touched by her hand it warbled--

"Fame hath a voice, whose thrilling tone Can bid the life pulse beat, As when a trumpet's note hath blown, Warning the hosts to meet; But ah! let mine, a woman's breast, With words of home-born love be bless'd."

She, too, who sleeps beneath the hopia-tree in Burmah, whose courage and constancy no hero has transcended, how rapidly has she been followed in the same self denying path, by others who "counted not their lives dear unto them," if they might bear to the perishing heathen the name and love of a Redeemer.

And one still lives, the wonderful Scandinavian maiden, whose melody now holds our own land in enchantment, and who exhibits, on a scale hitherto unknown in the world's history, rare endowments, boundless liberality, and deep humility; God's grace held in subservience to the good of her fellow creatures. Through the power of song, which, as the compeer of the nightingale, she possesses, and with a singular freedom from vanity and selfishness, she charms and elevates, while with the harvest of her toils she feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, comforts the desolate, aids the hallowed temple to uplift its spire, and the school to spread its brooding wing over the children of future generations.

One there lives, who doth inherit Angel gifts with angel spirit, Bidding streams of gladness flow Through the realms of want and woe, 'Mid lone age and misery's lot, Kindling pleasures long forgot, Seeking minds oppress'd with night, And on darkness shedding light; She the seraph's speech doth know, She hath learn'd their deeds below So, when o'er this misty strand, She shall clasp their waiting hand, They will fold her to their breast, More a sister than a guest.

If all true greatness should be estimated by its tendencies, and by the good it performs, it is peculiarly desirable that woman's claims to distinction should be thus judged and awarded. In this young western world, especially in New England, her agency has been admitted, and her capacity tested, of mingling a healthful leaven with the elements of a nation's character. Here, her presence has been acknowledged, and her aid faithfully rendered, from the beginning. There is a beautiful tradition, that the first foot which pressed the snow clad rock of Plymouth was that of Mary Chilton, a fair young maiden, and that the last survivor of those heroic pioneers was Mary Allerton, who lived to see the planting of twelve out of the thirteen colonies, which formed the nucleus of these United States.

In the May Flower, eighteen wives accompanied their husbands to a waste land and uninhabited, save by the wily and vengeful savage. On the unfloored hut, she who had been nurtured amid the rich carpets and curtains of the mother land, rocked her new born babe, and complained not. She, who in the home of her youth had arranged the gorgeous shades of embroidery, or, perchance, had compounded the rich venison pasty as her share in the housekeeping, now pounded the coarse Indian corn for her children's bread, and bade them ask God's blessing, ere they took their scanty portion. When the snows sifted through their miserable roof-trees upon her little ones, she gathered them closer to her bosom; she taught them the Bible, and the catechism, and the holy hymn, though the war-whoop of the Indian rang through the wild. Amid the untold hardships of colonial life, she infused new strength into her husband by her firmness, and solaced his weary hours by her love. She was to him,

"An undergoing spirit, to bear up Against whate'er ensued."

During the struggle of our Revolution, the privations sustained, and the efforts made by women, were neither few nor of short duration. Many of them are delineated in the present volume, and in other interesting ones of the same class, which have found favor with the public.

Yet innumerable instances of faithful toil, and patient endurance, must have been covered with oblivion. In how many a lone home, whence the father was long sundered by a soldier's destiny, did the Mother labor to perform to their little ones both his duties and her own, having no witness of the extent of her heavy burdens, and sleepless anxieties, save the Hearer of Prayer.

A good and hoary headed man, who had passed the limits of fourscore, once said to me, "my father was in the army during the whole eight years of the Revolutionary war, at first as a common soldier, afterwards as an officer. My mother had the sole charge of us, four little ones. Our house was a poor one, and far from neighbors. I have a keen remembrance of the terrible cold of some of these winters. The snow lay so deep and long, that it was difficult to cut or draw fuel from the woods, and to get our corn to mill, when we had any. My mother was the possessor of a coffee mill. In that she ground wheat, and made coarse bread, which we ate, and were thankful. It was not always that we could be allowed as much, even of this, as our keen appetites craved. Many is the time that we have gone to bed, with only a drink of water for our supper, in which a little molasses had been mingled. We patiently received it, for we knew our mother did as well for us as she could, and hoped to have something better in the morning. She was never heard to repine; and young as we were, we tried to make her loving spirit and heavenly trust, our example.

"When my father was permitted to come home, his stay was short, and he had not much to leave us, for the pay of those who achieved our liberties was slight, and irregularly rendered. Yet when he went, my mother ever bade him farewell with a cheerful face, and not to be anxious about his children, for she would watch over them night and day, and God would take care of the families of those who went forth to defend the righteous cause of their country. Sometimes we wondered that she did not mention the cold weather, or our short meals, or her hard work, that we little ones might be clothed, and fed, and taught. But she would not weaken his hands, or sadden his heart, for she said a soldier's lot was harder than all. We saw that she never complained, but always kept in her heart a sweet hope, like a well of living water. Every night ere we slept, and every morning when we arose, we lifted our little hands for God's blessing on our absent father, and our endangered country."

How deeply the prayers from such solitary homes, and faithful hearts, were mingled with the infant liberties of our dear native land, we may not know until we enter where we see no more "through a glass darkly, but face to face."

Incidents repeatedly occurred during this contest of eight years, between the feeble colonies and the strong motherland, of a courage that ancient Sparta would have applauded.

In a thinly settled part of Virginia, the quiet of the Sabbath eve was once broken by the loud, hurried roll of the drum. Volunteers were invoked to go forth and prevent the British troops, under the pitiless Tarleton, from forcing their way through an important mountain pass. In an old fort resided a family, all of whose elder sons were absent with our army, which at the North opposed the foe. The father lay enfeebled and sick. Around his bedside the Mother called their three sons, of the ages of thirteen, fifteen, and seventeen.

"Go forth, children," said she, "to the defence of your native clime. Go, each and all of you. I spare not my youngest, my fair-haired boy, the light of my declining years.

"Go forth, my sons. Repel the foot of the invader, or see my face no more."

It has been recorded in the annals of other climes, as well as our own, that Woman, under the pressure of unusual circumstances, has revealed unwonted and unexpected energies. It is fitting that she should prove herself equal to every emergency, nor shrink from any duty that dangers or reverses may impose.

Still, her best happiness and true glory are doubtless found in her own peculiar sphere. Rescued, as she has been, from long darkness, by the precepts of the religion of Jesus, brought forth into the broad sunlight of knowledge and responsibility, she is naturally anxious to know how to discharge her debt to the age, and to her own land. Her patriotism is, to labor in the sanctuary of home, and in every allotted department of education, to form and train a race that shall bless their country, and serve their God.