Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/612

Rh Moreover, a wonderful memory which carried the legislative history of each state, the formation and progress of political parties, the parts played by prominent men in our national life, and whatever has been done the world over to ameliorate conditions for women, made Miss Anthony a genial and instructive companion while her unfailing sympathy made her as good a listener as talker. The change in public sentiment toward woman suffrage was well indicated by the change which came in the popular estimate of Miss Anthony. Where once it was the fashion of the press to ridicule and jeer it came to pass that the best men on the papers were sent to interview her. Society, too, threw open its doors, and into many distinguished gatherings she carried the refreshing breadth of sincerity and earnestness. Her seventieth birthday, celebrated by the National Woman's Suffrage Association, of which she was vice-president at large, from its formation in 1869 until its convention in 1892, when she was elected president, was the occasion of a spontaneous outburst of gratitude, which is without any doubt unparalleled in the history of any living woman. Miss Anthony is truly one of the most heroic figures in American History, and her death in 1906 was the occasion of national sorrow.

Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker was the first child of the second wife of Doctor Lyman Beecher, the illustrious preacher of New England, and was born February 22, 1822, at Litchfield, Connecticut.

Individually and collectively, the Beecher family is considered the most remarkable in the United States, each member of it having been the possessor of a commanding talent, great energy and force of character and great gifts of the highest