Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/544

Rh first part of her married life was spent in Boston. At present the family make their home during the winter season with Mrs. Fitz's father, David Slade, of Chelsea. Th(>y have an attractive summer residence at Wakefield, Mass. Three sturdy boys furnisli inspiration for the mother's best effort.

Mr. David Slade's paternal grandfather, John Slade, the founder of this branch of the Slade family in New England, camp from Devonshire in the latter part of th(> eighteenth century. On the 4th of August, 1776, he, "John Slade of Boston," married "Hannah Torrey of Scituate." The Probate Records of Suffolk County show that on the 11th October, 1791, Hannah Slade, widow, w:is appointed "administratrix of the estate of John Slade, late of Chelsea, deceased." It is said that at some period of his residence in Massachusetts John Slade owned a number of slaves.

Through Mrs. Hannah Torrey Slade," her great-grandmother, Mrs. Fitz is descended from Lieutenant James Torrey, who was an inhabitant of Scituate before 1640; ami through her paternal grandmother, Sally Danforth, wife of Henry Slade, Mrs. Fitz is a descendant in the ninth generation of Nicholas Danforth, the immigrant progenitor of the Middlesex County colonial family of this name. Nicholas Danforth came to New England in 1634. The records of Cambridge, Mass., show that he became a landowner in 1635, was a Deputy, or Representative, to General Court in the same year, and on the 20th of November, 1637, was one of the important conunittee selected " to take orders for college at Newtown" (Cambridge). He died in April, 1638. The line of descent to Mrs. Sally Danforth Slade, who was of the seventh generation, was through his third and youngest son. Captain Jonathan Danforth, an early settler of Billerica, Mass.

Joshua Danforth, father of Sally and great-grandfather of Mrs. Fitz, was a Revolutionary soldier and in his old age a United States pensioner.

Mrs. Fitz's mother was a native of England, coming to this country when but a few months old. She was a loyal American, and taught her children to love her adopted country. It is not strange, with these records, that Mrs. Fitz stands to-day as a representative New England woman.

ARAH JOSEPHA HALE, author and philanthropist, was born October 24, 1788, in Newport, N.H. She was a daughter of Captain Gordon and Martha (Whittlesey) Buell and grand-daughter of Nathan and Thankful (Grifhn) Buell and of Joseph and Sarah (Whittlesey) Whittlesley, all descendants of New England Puritans, early settlers of Connecticut.

Captain Gordon Bu(>ll served as an officer in the Revolution, and after the war he settled in Newport, N.H.

When only sixteen years old, Sarah J. Buell began teaching school, which profession she followed for nine years. In 1813 she married David Hale, a lawyer, of Newport, and in 1822 by his death she was left a widow with five children.

Mrs. Hale had already become a worker with her pen, contributing to various newspapers and other periodicals. In 1823 she published a collection of her verses, entitled "The Genius of Oblivion, and Other Poems." Her first novel, "Northwood," was issued in Boston in 1827, under the title of "The Book of Flowers."

In 1828 Mrs. Hale removed from her home among the hills to Boston, to take the position of editor of the Ladies' Magazine, the first publication of its kind for women in America. In 1837 the Magazine was merged into Godey's Lady's Book of Philadelphia, Mrs. Hale becoming its literary e<litor and serving in that capacity till her retirement in 1877.

Among the publications of Mrs. Hale were "Sketches of American Character," "Traits of American Life," "Flori's Interpreter" (also published in London), "The Way to Live Well and to be Well while we Live," "Grosvenor, a Tragedy," and a Dictionary of Poetical Quotations. Her most important work, safe to say that by which she will be longest remembered, was "The Woman's Record," originally published in 1852 (other editions appearing later), an octavo volume of nine hundred pages, containing biographical sketches of more than two thousand distinguished women. Of this book