Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/117

86 ing Sunday afternoons. Room accommodates about four hundred with comfortable settees. Soldiers take an active part. Citizens, too, attend these meetings, and the citizens cheer the soldiers. Tuesday evenings a soldiers' con- cert, the room always crowded. The use of the building free to all soldiers, State associations, and all benevolent objects. The privi- lege of fifty volumes or more is offered to the chaplain and friends, to be distributed in hospi- tals out of the city, to be returned or exchanged for others within two weeks.

"The store-room in the building always con- tains a goodly supply of articles suitable for the soldiers' use, and is often replenished by the noble women of the North."

A soldiers' church was formed, having about two hundred members, of all denominations; and to each soldier member of the little free library church was given a small certificate, having a picture of the library and bearing the name of the soldier, his company and regi- ment, the State where he lived, ancl these three simple articles: "(1) I will try to the best of my ability to be a Christian. (2) I will take the Word of God for my guide and trust in Christ alone for salvation. (3) I solenmly pledge myself to abstain from profane language, from alcoholic drinks as a beverage, and from all vices of the army and camp, and will be a true soldier of my country and the cross." This certificate was signed by Mr. Fowle and Miss Rumsey, with date. More than one soldier boy was identified on the battle-fields by this little certificate, found in his pocket.

Miss Rumsey was married on Sunday, March 1, 1863, to Mr. John Allen Fowle. The cere- mony was performed by the Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, Chaplain of the Second Massachusetts Regiment and pastor of the Congregational Church, Jamaica Plain, Mass., where Mr. Fowle attended. The bride and bridegroom were leaders of the Capitol Choir, which furnished the music for the Sunday services established in the House of Representatives in 1862; and their work, which had given them a national reputation, was appreciated by their friends in Congress. Representatives' Hall in the Cap- itol was offered them, and the announcement that the wedding would take place there re- sulted in an attendance of four thousand people. President Lincoln, who had signified his intention of being present, but was unex- pectedly detained, sent a magnificent basket of flowers.

Mr. Fowle was born April 4, 1826, son of George Makepeace and Margaret L. (Eaton) Fowle. He is a descendant in the seventh gen- eration of George Fowle, who was born in Scot- land in 1610, and was admitted a freeman in Concord, Mass., in 1632. He has been a dry- goods and wool merchant in Boston since 1855, with the exception of some years after the Civil War, when they lived in Brooklyn, N.Y. They were active in the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's church. In Dorchester they are interested in the Pilgrim Congregational Church. Mr. Fowle is a member of the Dorchester Historical Soci- ety and the Improvement Association. Of the " Bungalow," the summer home of Mr. and Mrs. Fowle at North Scituate, a newspaper corre- spondent has said, "Not to have known the ' Bungalow ' is to have missed one of the quaint- est nooks on the South Shore."

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Fowle in Dorchester contains many valuable relics. "There on the wall is an old flag with its thirteen stars, which saw service in the War of 1812 as well as in the Civil War. Here over the case is a Confederate flag, one of the first captured, and presented to Mrs. Fowle by Admiral Foote, now intertwined with the stars and stripes. Among other relics are a Washington plate and a china saucer, both of which were presented to Mrs. Fowle by Aunt Sally Norris, who was a slave in the family of General Lee; some pieces of shell taken from the battle-field; an autograph album containing the names of thousands of soldiers; several letters from S. F. Smith, the author of 'America'; one from Oliver Wendell Holmes, with his additional verse to the 'Star-spangled Banner'; a directory of the soldiers and the hospitals, issued by Mr. Fowle in Washington." Mrs. Fowle has the writing-desk which was sent her from Dorchester and which she used during the war; an old chair made of hardtack boxes used in camp of the Fourth Delaware Battery; also a melodeon, useil in camp, ho.spital, and library; and many other interesting anil valuable souvenirs of those