Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/581

542 her name and highly illustrative of her Christian self-denial. So anxious was Mrs. Garrett to disincumber her estate of its liabilities at the earliest possible period and make it available to carry out her pious and benevolent designs that, for several years, she would only accept four hundred dollars per annum for her support, and nearly half of that she devoted to religious uses. There are probably few who would have been as self-denying under such circumstances. The providence of God did not allow designs so wise and so essential to the welfare of His Church to remain long undeveloped. The friends of the Church became interested to have the measure proposed carried into operation at the earliest moment possible. A beautiful site had just been selected for the Northwestern University on the shore of Lake Michigan, twelve miles north of Chicago, and it was resolved to erect at the same place a temporary building for the Biblical institute. Through the agency of the Rev. P. Judson, the building was promptly constructed; so that in January, 1855, a temporary organization of the institute was effected, under charge of the Rev. Dr. Dempster. It was arranged that this organization should be supported independent of the estate for a period of five years. Meantime, a charter for the permanent institution was secured from the legislature of the state :n full accordance with Mrs. Garrett's wishes.

In the autumn of 1855, from a state of perfect health, Mrs. Garrett was stricken down with mortal disease, and after a few days of suffering was called to her reward on high. On Sunday evening, the 18th of November, she was in her place at church, and on Thursday, the 22d, she died.

"Only a few years have passed away since the death of Mrs. Garrrett, and already the seed planted by her hand is producing fruit — an earnest of a glorious and endless harvest. The institution which her liberality endowed, and which, it was feared, might have to struggle for a time with opposition and prejudice, was only a few months after her decease formally accepted and sanctioned by the general conference, the highest judicatory of the Church. The Bishops, the highest officers of the Church, were apppointed a board of council for the institution, and under their advice it has been permanently organized. It is now in efficient operation, and has already given the earnest of widespread and continued usefulness in the Church."

Mme. Grouitch, wife of the Servian Charge d'Affaires at the Court of St. James, London, England, was formerly Miss Mabel Gordon Dunlop of West Virginia, whose father was a prominent railroad man of the early days in Virginia and later in Chicago, Illinois. Mme. Grouitch when quite a young girl became interested in the study of archaeology and ethnology, to which her father was greatly devoted. After studying at the Chicago University for several years, she went to Athens to revel in the ruins and collections of Greece. While a student in Athens she met her husband, a member of a distinguished family of Servia, who was at that time Attache of the Servian Legation in Paris, where their marriage occurred. Since her marriage Mme. Grouitch has devoted herself to the work of up-lifting the women of Servia. The University at Belgrade admits girls, but in Servia a girl may not go away from home or into the street unchaperoned,