Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/856

Rh of the Reade family came to America in the "Mayflower." Mrs. Lamb made her home at different times at Goshen, Massachusetts, Northampton and Easthampton. In 1882 she became the wife of Charles A. Lamb, and became conspicuous in charitable work in the city of Chicago, in which they resided from 1857 to 1866. She was an active worker after the great fire of 1863. In 1866 the Lambs made their home in New York City. Mrs. Lamb had always been a woman of remarkable mathematical talent and training. In 1879 she prepared for Harper's Magazine a notable paper translating to unlearned readers the mysteries and work of the Coast Survey. She has written a remarkable history of the city of New York, in two volumes, which was pronounced by competent authorities to be the best history ever written on any great city in the world. The preparation of this work required fifteen years of study and research. The list of Mrs. Lamb's works is long and distinguished, among them many historical sketches. Some titles are: "Lyme, a Chapter of American Genealogy"; "Chimes of Old Trinity," "State and Society in Washington," "The Coast Survey," "The Homes of America," "Memorial to Dr. Rust" and the "Philanthropist;" several sketches for magazines, "Unsuccessful candidates for the Presidential Nomination," sketch of Major-General John A. Dix, "Historical Homes in Lafayette Place," "The Historical Homes of Our Presidents." It is said that Mrs. Lamb wrote upwards of two hundred articles, essays and short stories, for weekly and monthly periodicals, but her greatest work was her "History of the City of New York," which is a standard authority and will be throughout all time. Mrs. Lamb died in 1893.

Emma D. E. Nevitt was the eldest daughter of Captain Charles Nevitt, of Alexandria, Virginia. Was born in Washington, D. C, December 26, 1819. The family was descended from those of high rank in England and France. Her people had emigrated to this country in 1632, and were conspicuous in the American Revolution. Her father served at the head of a company in the War of 1812, receiving a wound from which he never recovered. At the age of forty-five, Captain Nevitt married his second wife, a young girl of but fifteen years and removed to Washington, where they leased a large house said to have been occupied at one time by General Washington. Mrs. Nevitt, after Captain Nevitt's death, married the second time, her husband being Joshua L. Henshaw of Boston, and to him Mrs. Southworth says she is indebted almost entirely for her education. Among her early writings is "The Irish Refugee," which was accepted by the editor of the Baltimore Saturday Visitor, who so encouraged the young writer that she wrote "The Wife's Victory." A few of her early stories were printed in the National Era of Washington City, its editor engaging her as a regular writer for that paper. She then commenced her third novel "Sibyl's Brother, or The Temptation," and in 1849 "Retribution" was published by Harper Brothers, and in five years after its appearance she had written "The Deserted Wife," "Shannondale," "The Mother-in-Law," "Children of the Isle," "The Foster Sisters," "The Courts of Clifton," "Old Neighbors in New Settlements," "The Lost Heiress" and "Hickory Hall." Her prolific pen was latterly engaged exclu-