Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/497

460 Mrs. Boynton was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, of Massachusetts parentage on both sides of the house in an unbroken line back to 1630, when Robert Mason came to America from England and settled in Dedham. The family was prominent in civil and military affairs in the colonies. Thomas Mason, son of Robert, was killed by the Indians at the defense of Medfield in 1676. Lieutenant Henry Adams, one of her lineal ancestors was also killed in this massacre. He was the ancestor of Samuel Adams, Revolutionary patriot, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, presidents of the United States. Andrew Hall, her colonial ancestor on her mother's side, was a lineal descendant of Elizabeth Newgate, daughter of John de Hoo Hessett, of England. The Halls were active in the Indian wars, and in the Revolution. Mrs. Boynton's national number is twenty-eight. She has served as vice-president-general in charge of organization, vice-president-general, honorary vice-president-general and librarian-general. In 1871 she married General H. V. Boynton an officer of national reputation in the Civil and Spanish Wars. He received the medal of honor for gallantry in the attack on Missionary Ridge.

Mrs. Beale was elected through the Continental Congress in Washington to the honor of vice-president-general of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was already well known as a representative for her state to the Colorado Exposition. She is the daughter of the late honorable William Ballard Preston and Lucy Staples Redd and was born in Montgomery County, Virginia, at the old family seat, Smithfield. When it was proposed to reproduce for the Virginia State building at Chicago, facsimiles of the furnishings of the home of Washington, Mrs. Beale was able to save the state some expense by her offer to furnish several counterparts from the household belongings of old Smithfield. She is descended on both sides from distinguished Revolutionary ancestors and in her we find the high courage which grapples with different enterprises, the talent that organizes, the executive force that reaches completion, and the diplomatic instinct that leads all circumstances to the consummation of determined purpose. The office to which Mrs. Beale was called was not of her own seeking, for contented in the happy home of an honored husband, she found all that her true, womanly heart asked, in his devotion and that of her children to which is lavishly added the warmest devotion of a wide circle of friends.

Mrs. Geer, vice-president-general of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was born at Williamstown, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Keyes and Mary Bushnell Danforth. She is of good Revolutionary stock, being the grandchild of Captain Jonathan Danforth, a soldier at Bunker Hill and Bennington, besides her grandfather, two uncles and ten other relatives who fought at Bunker Hill. Her father served several terms in the state legislature of Massachusetts and was for many years leader of the Democratic party in Berkshire