Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/742

 Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy was born at Bow, N. H., a few miles distant from Concord, the Capital City of the state. Her home commanded a charming view of the picturesque valley of the Merrimac River. She was the daughter of Mark and Abigail Ambrose Baker. Her great-grandfather was Captain Joseph Baker, among her ancestors were Captain Joseph Lovewell and General John Macneil, of Revolutionary fame. Her father was a well-to-do farmer and gave his daughter Mary all the school privileges that his neighborhood afforded. Besides school advantages, Mary Baker's educational opportunities were enhanced by private tutors, among whom were Rev. Enoch Corser, of Sanbornton Bridge Academy, and Professor Dyer H. Sanborn, the author of Sanborn's grammar.

In her youthful days Mrs. Eddy wrote both prose and poetry which were acceptable for publication in the periodicals of their day. Letters written to members of her family in her early girlhood, which have recently been published in Munsey's Magazine, give evidence of her close observation and depth of thought, as well as of her piety. These letters show that peculiar fondness for her home and the members of her family which is always in evidence in a deeply spiritual nature.

Samuel B. G. Corser, A.M., her boyhood friend, referred to her as the "brightest pupil" in his father's class, and declared that, "intellectually and spiritually, she stood head and shoul-