Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/500

Rh ancestry has been traced back to the time of King Henry VI. Mrs. Main's paternal grandmother was a direct descendant of Roger Conant, who was appointed hrst governor by the Dorchester Company of St. Ann, Endicott being his successor. Mrs. Main's mother, Elizabeth Emerson, belonged to that family which was so prominent in the early educational life of New England, the most widely known member being Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose fame as a thinker is world-wide. Her maternal grandmother was Esther Frothingham, daughter of Major Benjamin Frothingham, the personal friend of George Washington. Mrs. Main has been identified with the Daughters of the American Revolution since 1896, having filled many important offices in the society.

Mrs. Baldwin Day Spilman, vice-president-general of the Daughters of the American Revolution, is a daughter of Senator and Mrs. J. N. Camden, and though born in Wheeling, West Virginia, has always lived in Parkersburg. She was educated at Madam Lefebvre's school in Baltimore. She lived in Washington during her father's service in the United States Senate and traveled abroad, thus acquiring many graces which distinguished her, and which later attracted the fine young lieutenant who became her husband, and which have made her successful in the work which she has undertaken. Mrs. Spilman formed the James Wood Chapter in Parkersburg. In the annual congress in Washington, in April, 1904, she was elected regent of the little mountain state of which all West Virginians are so justly proud. She was later elected to the position of one of the vice-presidents-general of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Spilman's Revolutionary ancestor, Captain Cornelius Stimrod, enlisted in the Westchester Militia of New York in 1776 under Colonel Alexander McDougal. He commanded a company of Minute Men in 1782.

Mrs. Ritchie was elected at the Congress of 1895 state regent of Maryland. She is the widow of the late Honorable John Ritchie, of Frederick City, Maryland, and is the daughter of the late Judge William Pinkney Maulsby, of Maryland, and his wife, Emily Contee Nelson, daughter of Roger Nelson, from whom she derives her eligibility to the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is descended from the legal profession on every side. Her grandfather, General Israel David Maulsby, was one of the most distinguished lawyers of his day, an eloquent and polished orator and a tried public servant, having represented his country in the state legislature twenty-nine times. He was one of the volunteer defenders of the city of Baltimore when it was besieged by the British in 1814, and was one of those who made it possible for the "Patriot Poet" to see the Star-Spangled Banner still waving "in the dawn's early light." His wife was the daughter of John Hall, an officer of the Revolution. Mrs. Ritchie's maternal ancestors came to this country in the latter part of the seventeenth century, locating first in St. Mary's County, Maryland, and later coming up into western