Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/444

Rh friends in Quincy, Hi., she met Robert Benneson, to whom she was afterward married, and there they founded their home. Their interests, whether educational, religious, or philanthropic, were identical. Mr. Benneson valued his wife's sound judgment and keen intuition in business matters above that of all other counsellors. Each respected the individuality of the other and of their children. They helped to estab- lish the Unitarian church in that section of the West, gave to it liberally both of their labor and of their means, and were devoted to its interests throughout their lives. For many years Mrs. Benneson was superintendent of the Sunday-school. "Do right because it is right" was the keynote of her teaching. Her activity was not confined to her home and church. Any movement aiming at the good of the com- munity found in her a ready helper. In what- ever she undertook her foresight and execu- tive ability led her to be successful. She was much interested in the W^oodland Home, an asylum for orphans and friendless, and united all of the churches of her city in a large fair for its benefit, over which she presided. During the Civil War she devoted herself to the sol- diers' families and to the wounded in the hos- pitals, even receiving two from the latter into her own home, where they were cared for until convalescent.

Mrs. Benneson was always the same — self- sacrificing, courageous, forceful, not easily sur- prised, remarkably even-tempered and well- balanced. Her feelings found expression in deeds of kindliness rather than in words. She had scholarly instincts, rare literary taste, and constantly took up new studies. In the inter- vals of a busy life she wrote easily and well. That her children should excel in authorship would have been her greatest satisfaction.

Miss Benneson, the youngest of four sisters, inherited her father's physique and her mother's mental characteristics. She was a sturdy child, orderly, accurate, self-reliant, ambitious, and persevering. Her mother, who studied all her children, soon perceived that tlie wisest way to direct her was as f«r as possible to answer her questions exactly and fully and to explain to her principles and the relation of things. Under this loving guidance and in the companionship of her sisters and a young cousin who was one of the household, she had a happy childhood. Her happiness, however, was by no means passive. Diligent in all the activities that impel healthy young minds, she wrote and studied with a zeal that might have put to shame much older heads. She had learned to read before the family knew what she was about, and when she became absorbed in a book one could call her name aloud without her hearing it, an experi- ment frequently made by the other children. The five little girls had many novel and in- genious ways of entertaining themselves. One of their enterprises was the editing of a maga- zine called The Experimentj which was read aloud every week in the family circle. In its colmnns appeared Miss Benneson's first writ- ings. At eight she contributed a satire on a fashionable woman's call, entitled "A Visit," which won the prize the mother had offered. To receive it the embarrassed author had to be dragged from under the bed, where she had hidden during the reading.

At nine, by her own request, her father al- lowed her to help keep his books. In his old ledgers are still to be seen her childish figures, correctly and carefully entered.

At twelve she was reading Latin at sight, had acquaintance with much of the best litera- ture, and was industriously collecting and tabu- lating historical facts. Her mother noted her ability to get at the pith of an argument and to sum up a conversation in a few words of her own. Permitted to take pencil arid paper to church, she drew trees as she listened to the discourses, the trunk representing the text, or main thought, the branches the ideas leading out from it. In her judgment the merits of a sermon depended upon whether or not it could be " treed." At school she easily excelled other children of her age. At fifteen she had finished the course at the Quincy Academy, the equiva- lent of that of a good high school. At eighteen she was graduated from the Quinc}' Seminary. From that time until she entered college she had her full share of social life, of which her father's house was a hospitable centre.

The homestead of the Bennesons is a large mansion situated above a series of terraces, surrounded by trees and shrubs, and command-