Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/580

Rh Mrs. Lyman has given her best efforts for Post No. 92, assisting in fairs and in other enterprises. On one occasion she presented the post a handsome china set of seven hundred and fifty pieces and an autograph quilt containing four hunched and sixty-eight names, among them those of President Harrison, ex-President Cleveland, prominent military heroes, Boston merchants, and all members of Post No. 92.

During her year as Department Junior Vice-President, Mrs. Lyman attended numerous patriotic gatherings, participating in corps meetings, union services with posts, socials, and campfires. She also served on committees, and was vice-chairman of the Department W. R. C. table in the fair of the Ladies' Aid A.ssociation of the Soldiers' Home which was held in Faneuil Hall.

At the annual convention in 1901 Mrs. Lyman was unanimously elected Department Senior Vice-President. As reported at the annual convention in 1902, held in the Park Street Church, Boston, she visited sixty-six corps and participated in over one hundred patriotic gatherings in her official capacity during the year. She was also vice-president of the Department W. R. C. Fair Committee for the week's fair held in November, 1901, in Faneuil Hall, Boston.

At the last annual convention, February 12, 1902, which was composed of delegates representing fourteen thousand women, Mrs. Lyman was unanimously elected to the office of Department President. She conducted a very successful administration, and was popular with the posts and corps throughout the State. She represented the Department on two hundred and seventy-eight different occasions, and travelled many thousands of miles. Special efforts were made by her to increase the relief fund, and she was successful in this, as in all her work for the cause.

She was the recipient of many courtesies throughout the State and at Washington, D.C., where she attended the National Convention, and had charge of the delegation from Maaeachusetts.

She is an earnest worker in all the lines of patriotism and active in the plans for the National Convention to be held in Boston in 1904, being a member of the Executive Committee and chairman of the Committee on Luncheon. In everything she undertakes Mrs. Lyman enters upon the work in a zealous manner, and has accomplished results that have won for her the respect and commendation of her associates.

ARIE WARE LAUGHTON was born in Lewiston, Me., at the home of her parents, Warren Preston and Elizabeth Foss (Prentiss) Laughton. Her paternal grandparents were John and Amata (Greenleaf) Laughton. Another John Laughton, her ancestor of an earlier generation, was a minute-man in the Revolution. Through her grandmother Amata, daughter of Joshua Greenleaf, Miss Laughton traces her ancestry back to Edmund Greenleaf (believed to have been of Huguenot stock), who settled in Newbury, Mass., in 1635. Her line, like the poet John Greenleaf Whittier's, continued through Etlmund's son Stephen, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Tristram Coffin.

Miss Laughton's maternal grandparents were Philo and Matilda (Foss) Prentiss. Her great- grandfather, Valentine Prentiss, served as Sergeant in the Revolutionary army. After the war he removed from Woodbury, Conn., to China, Me. He was a lineal descendant of Valentine Prentise, who joined the church in Roxbury in 1632.

Marie Ware Laughton, after her graduation from the Lewiston High School, attended the Normal Practice School in that city, from which she received her teacher'.? diploma in 1881. She then taught for six years in the Lewiston public schools. During the latter part of this time she took up the study of elocution. In the following year she was granted leave of absence to attend the Boston School of Oratory, where she was graduated in 1888. She has studied extensively with the best specialists in the country.

After continuing her work of teaching in Maine for several years, she came to Boston to teach in the Boston College of Oratory, and in 1896 she founded the School of English