Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/67

48 (Neal) Alden she rightfully inherits the traditions of the Commonwealth founded by the Pilgrim Fathers and the Puritans of the Bay Colony. The first paragraph of her family history was penned by Governor Bradford more than two hundred years ago:&mdash;

"John Alden was hired for a cooper at Southampton, where the ship victualed; and being a hopeful young man, was much desired but left to his own liking to go or stay when he came; but he stayed and married here."

From John1 Alden and the ready-witted Priscilla (whose parents, William and Alice Mullins, and their son Joseph, died the first winter) the line was continued through Captain Jonathan,2 Andrew,3 Major Prince,4 Andrew Stanford,5 Prince William,6 to May7 (Mrs. Ward).

Captain Jonathan Alden married Abigail, daughter of Andrew Hallet, Jr.2 Andrew Alden, their eldest son, married Lydia Stanford. Major Prince Alden married Mary Fitch, daughter of Adonijah Fitch, of Montville, Conn. Her father was a grandson of the Rev. James1 Fitch, of Saybrook and Norwich, Conn., and his second wife, Priscilla Mason, daughter of Major John Mason, famous military leader of the Connecticut Colony.

A year or two before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Major Prince Alden migrated with his family from Connecticut to Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, where he became a large land-owner. In 1816 Andrew Stanford Alden, with his wife, Elizabeth Allington, and their children, removed from Tioga County, New York, to Ohio.

Prince William Alden, Mrs. Ward's father, a merchant and banker, born in 1809, died February 27, 1893. He married in 1844 Rebecca, daughter of Henry Neal, of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, and his wife, Catherine Bigelow, who was a daughter of Isaac Bigelow, of Dummerston, Vt., and a descendant of John Biglo, of Watertown, the founder of the Bigelow family of New England. Mrs. Rebecca Neal Alden, born in 1823, died April 12, 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Alden had three children&mdash;Henry, Reuben, and May (now Mrs. Ward).

From her father May Alden inherited a taste for history and literature. She began to study and to use her pen very early, contributing articles to the Cincinnati Commercial before she was sixteen. She was educated at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, and after her graduation in 1872 she studied some years abroad, devoting herself to French, German, and English literature, later taking up Italian. On June 1, 1873, she was married to William G. Ward, since 1898 professor of English literature at the Emerson College of Oratory, Boston, formerly holding the same chair at Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., and at an earlier date President of Spokane College. Professor Ward is the author of several books, among them "Tennyson's Debt to Environment" and "The Poetry of Robert Browning."

Since she came to New England, twelve years ago, the rise in club life of Mrs. May Alden Ward has been constant and rapid. At Franklin she organized a club of which she was the first president, and which was afterward named for her the Alden Club. Later while living in Cambridge she was for four years president of Cantabrigia, one of the largest and most energetic clubs of the country. At the same time Mrs. Ward became a member of the famous New England Woman's Club, in which she is still one of the most valued workers. For two years she was president of the New England Woman's Press Association, and she is strong in its councils at the present time. She is also a charter member and director of the Authors' Club of Boston. She was the first vice-president of the Massachusetts State Federation for two years before becoming its president. She also has interest in various public affairs, and has been appointed one of the Commissioners for Massachusetts at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.

Mrs. Ward began lecturing about twelve years ago, responding to the request of some ladies who asked her to give parlor talks on French literature. As a lecturer and teacher she now does an enormous amount of work, her accuracy, her pleasing address, her directness, and the large amount of information crowded into her lessons and lectures making her one of the most popular club lecturers in New England. Of her efforts in that field the New York Times has this to say: "Mrs. Ward